Is there a future in this doomed world?
by sasha272
Summary: Pezberry Zombie Fic - The gleeks decide to celebrate their graduation in New Orleans but their vacation take a turn for the worst when the world turns into chaos.
1. Chapter 1

**Is there a future in this doomed world?**

 **A/N: I'm back pitches! I know it took me a while to work on my last Pezberry story again but Lena Luthor from Supergirl stole my heart and my muse was busy coming up with Supercorp fics. But since the CW is always there to ruin the fun and I can't watch Supergirl anymore without cringing at the abusive frat boy piece of garbage that turned Supergirl into a simple love interest in her own show, I decided to take a break and go back to Pezberry. At least Glee is over, they can't ruin characters more than they did in the last season.**

 **Anyway, here's a Pezberry zombie story. I have to admit, Resident Evil: last chapter fed my inspiration a bit too, I mean, Claire Redfield can call me whenever. I think I have a type, badass women who take no shit. So I hope there are still people interested in this ship, let me know what you think of the first chapter.**

* * *

Disclaimers: I don't own glee

WARNING: death, violence, suicide

Context: Set a few years after high school. Most of the gleeks are graduating. Rachel and Kurt stayed in NYADA to finish their degrees, Santana found a job as a singer in a lounge bar while taking classes at a community college. Rachel and Santana are single but had grown a lot closer over the years, somehow oblivious to their feelings. Finn never left the army and Puck is still in the Air force.

Blaine and Kurt broke up when Kurt went to New York so Blaine decided to take a fresh start in New Orleans where he's studying theatre. He used his connections to produce a small play he wrote while still in college.

To celebrate their graduation and show Blaine their support, some of the gleeks decided to go to Blaine's premiere and enjoy a few days in New Orleans. Their little vacations took a turn for the worse when an outbreak spread panic all over town and soon, the world.

* * *

After their exhausting trip, Rachel and Santana were glad to finally settle in their hotel room. They had decided to share a room to save money while Kurt was sharing his room with his boyfriend Adam since he didn't want to come unaccompanied.

Since they were supposed to meet Blaine and the others for dinner, the girls started to get ready. While Rachel was in the shower, Santana was lying on her bed, texting Quinn. **_'We just settled in our room, the hotel is okay. When are you supposed to arrive?'_**

Quinn: **_'My plane got delayed but I'm leaving the airport now. Still can't believe you chose to share a room with Berry.'_**

Santana frowned at the answer. She didn't know what the big deal was. **_'We're roommates and you said you didn't know how long you could stay so I wasn't about to pay for the room alone.'_**

Quinn: **_'Whatever you say… I'm almost out of battery. Text you when I'm there.'_**

"That bitch…" The Latina exclaimed under her breath just when Rachel came out of the bathroom.

"Did you say something?" Rachel asked.

"No." The tan girl stood up and went to her suitcase to gather her clothes so she could shower.

The petite girl started drying her hair with a towel. "I still can't believe Blaine managed to produce his musical. I mean, it's huge for someone his age!"

Santana snorted. "Don't be jealous, I think it's more due to his sugar daddy than his talent."

The brunette gasped. "Santana, that's mean!"

"I'm just keeping it real!" The raven-haired girl declared. "And don't pretend you're not annoyed he didn't offer you a role." She watched as Rachel grabbed one of her jackets from her suitcase. The diva had been borrowing her clothes for a while now but she never thought she would do it right in front of her. Right now, she was too tired to care.

"I'll have you know that I am proud of my friends' accomplishments, no matter big or small." Rachel huffed, putting the jacket on her bed. "And to be perfectly honest, I read the play, it's not really for me but Blaine promised me he would write a role for me in the next one."

The Latina chuckled. "Of course you asked." She shook her head.

"I hope you'll restrain yourself from making such comments tonight. We are here to support Blaine and enjoy our vacations before taking the big leap into adulthood, not to start petty fight."

The tan girl scoffed. "Whatever, you're not my mom or my girlfriend, so I'll say whatever I want, Berry." She grabbed her stuff and walked toward the bathroom.

Rachel sighed. "Why do I bother?"

* * *

Rachel and Santana entered the restaurant with Quinn, Kurt and Adam. They were surprised to see they were the last ones to arrive. Finn and Puck were already at the table. Despite being invited, the other members of their little group weren't able to make it.

After some light chit chat, Blaine thanked them all for being here and clinked his glass to make a toast. "I want to thank you all again for being here tonight, it means a lot to me. I wish more of you could have made it but I understand that some of our friends are still in college or have a busy schedule like Mercedes…"

Santana leaned to the side and whispered in Quinn's ear. "What are Dumb and Dumber doing here? I thought they were away on a mission or something?"

"I thought so too but I got a text from Tina. She said Mike decided to stay with her because the only reason Finn wanted to be here was for Rachel. He wanted them to help him woo her back. They met in Lima and took a road trip to here." Quinn explained.

"What?" The Latina said louder than she expected.

"Annndd…" Blaine glared at her before continuing his speech.

Santana glared back before looking at Quinn. "For real?"

"That's what Tina told me. I wouldn't be surprised if it was true, though." The blonde confessed. "Rachel just graduated; maybe he thinks that if it doesn't work out for her, she'll go back to Lima with him."

"What?!" The raven-haired girl exclaimed loudly again.

"Santana!" Rachel whispered-yelled. "Don't be rude!"

"Whatever. He's having his big night tomorrow, yay!" Santana reached for her glass and raised it in the air. "Congrats, now can we eat?"

Blaine sighed. "Well I guess since everyone is talking, I'd better finish my speech. Thank you everyone and especially George, my amazing boyfriend." He smiled before kissing him.

The Latina made a face before once again turning her attention toward Quinn. "That's pathetic. How can he believe she's not gonna make it? And worse, how can he think she would go back to Lima with him?"

Quinn shrugged. "Why do you care?"

"I don't," The tan girl scowled. "But even I know she deserves better than Finnocence."

The blonde smirked. "Oh really?"

The raven-haired girl raised an eyebrow defiantly. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means…" Quinn started before being interrupted by an annoyed Rachel.

"Quinn! I'm sure you are eager to catch up with Santana but maybe it could wait for another time." The diva glared at her friends.

"Jeez, it's not boot camp! I'm here to enjoy my time not to be bossed around as if it was glee club all over again." The blonde answered back, slightly annoyed by the constant interruption.

The brunette gasped. "I…"

"Ladies, please." Kurt interrupted. "Let's order, shall we."

Everyone looked at their menus except for Santana who leaned toward Quinn again. "If she keeps me up all night because she needs to bitch about your comment, I'm gonna ends you." She threatened before taking a sip of her cocktail.

"Oh I'm sure you'd love it if she kept you up all night for another reason." She stated with a sly smile. Santana choked on her drink at the statement.

Rachel who was on her left side, looked at her with concern. "Are you okay?" She leaned closer to her friend and tapped her back lightly.

The Latina pushed the diva's hand away. "I'm fine."

Quinn's smile grew wider before stating innocently. "I think I'm going to try the red beans with rice."

After that, dinner went well. Once they left the restaurant, George invited everyone for a drink at his bar so they could enjoy the rest of the evening.

* * *

The group of friends had been at the bar for a couple of hours, drinking and chatting happily. Santana was laughing at one of Puck's lame jokes when she heard people fighting. She looked up and saw Adam and Blaine in a heated conversation. She searched for Rachel and saw her talking to Finn. She rolled her eyes before calling Kurt who was laughing with Quinn. "Lady lips, what's going on with your man?"

Kurt looked confused and turned to look at his boyfriend. Everyone stopped their conversation and approached Blaine and Adam who seemed to be both drunk.

"I was his first boyfriend; you'll never measure up to that!" Blaine shouted.

"Oh jealousy, isn't it the theme of the night!" Quinn exclaimed, weirdly amused by the scene as she sipped her wine.

"Shut up!" Santana snapped. "Is it a cockfight? Cause I'm not drunk enough to enjoy that."

"Adam, what's wrong?" Kurt asked carefully as he put his hand on his boyfriend's shoulder.

"Why don't you ask you ex-boyfriend? He's been on my back all night about how he got you first." Adam answered angrily.

"Blaine, is that true?" The boy questioned surprised.

"No, I was just sharing memories of the past." Blaine argued. "It's not my fault if he's not able to appreciate them."

Feeling the tension, Rachel decided to intervene. "Kurt, I think we should just call it a night and go back to our hotel."

"No!" Blaine shouted. "We're celebrating, come on, don't leave!"

"Dude, you're drunk." Puck stated.

Blaine reached for Kurt's hand but Adam pushed him quickly. "Don't touch him!"

"Or what?" Blaine pushed Adam back before punching him. Kurt's boyfriend took a second to recover and punched Blaine straight on the jaw before tackling him against the nearest table. They both crashed to the floor, glasses shattering around them.

Rachel gasped. "Oh my god." She looked at her friends. "Someone do something."

Finn stepped forward and tried to separate them but Blaine pushed him. Since he wasn't expecting it, he stumbled backward, elbowing Rachel in the eye.

"Ow…" The brunette whined in pain as she lifted her hand to her eye.

"Dude!" Santana glared at Finn.

"Oh my god, Rach, I'm so sorry, are you okay?" Finn asked concerned.

"No!" The diva cried.

Puck decided to intervene and grabbed Blaine lifting him up off the floor. "Stop it, man!" Kurt quickly helped his boyfriend stand.

"I think that's enough drama for tonight, we should go back to our hotel." Quinn declared.

"You're bleeding." George said to Blaine.

Santana pushed Finn away from Rachel and checked the girl's face. "You should put some ice on that if you don't want to look like you took part in an illegal fight."

"Let me help!" Finn offered.

"I think you're done enough." Quinn moved to Rachel's side. "You should help Blaine, I think he should go to the ER for his cuts."

"I'm fine!" Blaine said dismissively.

"You look like shit." Santana answered as she noticed blood on his eyebrow.

"Puck, Finn, you should go with them." Quinn commanded. "We're leaving with Kurt and Adam. Let us know how it went."

"Are you sure?" Puck seemed to hesitate. "You don't want me to walk you back there?"

Santana rolled her eyes. "We'll be fine."

"Okay." Puck nodded before grabbing his jacket.

"I'd prefer stay with Rachel." Finn insisted.

"No, I'll take it from here." The Latina glared at him.

"I'm not sure you're the best person to help," Finn persisted. "You don't even care about her."

"You don't know shit, Hudson," Santana snapped. "Besides, you're the one who elbowed her!" Without thinking, she put her arm protectively around the diva's waist.

Finn looked at his ex pleadingly. "Rachel?"

Rachel blinked, trying to focus despite her slight dizziness. "Huh, it's okay Finn, I trust Santana to take care of me."

Santana smirked at Finn's sad face before looking at Kurt. "Ready to go?" The man nodded and they all made their way out of the bar.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

 **A/N:** T **hank you for the heart-warming comments guys, it really made my day. I'm glad to see some of you are still faithful readers.**

 **I'm gonna be busy this weekend and probably next week too, but I'm really trying to work on this story despite my Supercorp crew pushing me back into Kara and Lena's arms…**

 **Anyway, I hope you'll like this update, shit's about to get real!**

* * *

Once the group was back at the hotel, Quinn went to the reception desk to ask for two ice packs for Rachel and Adam but no one was there to help. She looked around the lobby and was surprised by how empty and silent it was, she couldn't even see any employees around. She shrugged before making her way back to her room.

After taking a shower, she left her room to make sure Kurt and Adam were okay then knocked on Santana's room door to check on Rachel.

Santana opened the door and smiled. "The hobbit is sleeping." She stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind her.

Quinn nodded. "How is she?"

The Latina snorted. "She talked my ear off about her black eye and how makeup won't hide it completely and what people are going to think about her. I tuned her out at some point but I guess she's okay."

The blonde chuckled before becoming serious. "I can't believe Blaine got jealous of Adam. I know when we all meet there is always drama but I mean, they broke up years ago, I thought they had both moved on."

Santana shrugged. "Maybe seeing them together brought back memories."

"What a way to start our vacations…" Quinn sighed. "What do you want to do now?"

"I don't know. I'm beat and they kind of ruined my mood..." Santana ran a hand through her hair.

"You don't want a drink?" The blonde offered. "I brought some wine in case we wanted an after party."

"Maybe tomorrow." The tan girl smiled tiredly. "I…" A loud noise coming from the room at the end of the hallway interrupted her. "What was that?"

Quinn looked in the direction of the noise. "I don't know, I keep hearing weird noises from that room. I really don't want to know what they are doing."

Santana smirked. "Maybe there're into kinky stuff."

The blonde made a face. "Ew, like I said I don't want to know." They heard a growl again.

The Latina laughed. "Well at least someone is having fun."

"Jealous?" Quinn raised her eyebrow.

The tan girl snorted, leaning against the door frame. "About them having straight sex, ew, no."

"There were some pretty cute girls at the bar tonight and you didn't even look at them." The blonde pointed out.

"So?" Santana straightened her posture, she didn't like the way their conversation was going. "I'm here to have fun with some friends not to hook up with girls."

"Or maybe you were too busy shooting daggers at Finn for being all over Rachel." Quinn argued with a sly smile.

The raven-haired girl scowled. "Okay seriously, what's your deal? You keep making these fucking comments about me and Rachel and it's getting annoying."

"I'm just saying, you haven't been on a date in a while, the same goes for Rachel and you're always together…"

"We're roommates and friends, did you bleach your hair so many times that you forgot the definition of those words." The Latina answered harshly.

The blonde glared at her before she continued. "No. I am just stating facts. You got kind of jealous about her ex-boyfriend, you do her laundry. Rachel is doing your paperwork, she cooks for you and told you not to date what's her name. You…"

"Are you spying on us?" Santana cut her off, crossing her arms. "How do you know all that?"

"It doesn't matter." Quinn replied dismissively. "What matters is that you two are acting like a couple without being one and that's weird."

"We're not!"

"You are!" The blonde insisted. "So maybe you should both open your eyes and…"

Suddenly a bloody scream coming from the last room resonated down the hallway. Both girls looked at each other in surprise and fright until Santana spoke. "Okay, I don't really know much about kinky straight sex but that doesn't sound right."

Quinn nodded in agreement. "Do you think we should go check in?"

"I don't really want to die tonight; maybe we should just call the reception."

The blonde rolled her eyes. "Don't be so dramatic, jeez, you've spent too much time with Berry."

"Have you ever watched a horror movie?" Santana exclaimed. "I'm hot and Latina, which means I'll die before your white blonde ass here."

They heard another scream followed by some loud banging on the door. "Okay this is starting to freak me out." Santana hastily opened the door of her room and reached for the phone on the night stand. She called the reception but no one answered.

"What's wrong?" Rachel asked sleepily.

"Sorry, nothing. Just go back to sleep." Santana rushed out of the room. "No one is answering."

"We can't just stay here while someone is being murdered at the end of the hall." Quinn pressed.

"What do you want us to do? Knock and ask nicely if someone is dying?"

"You're right, we need something to defend ourselves, just in case." The blonde looked around and spotted a cleaning cart. She walked toward it and grabbed a broom. She turned around and looked at Santana.

"Are you serious?" The Latina frowned. "Are you planning on scaring them to death with a broom?"

"Do you have a better idea?" Quinn snapped.

The tan girl approached her friend and took the broom from her hand. "Yeah, let's go downstairs and find the security guy!"

"We'll be too late." The blonde scanned the hallway and saw a hatchet in a red emergency case. She rushed toward it and inspected the case which was already open. Since there was no need to break the glass, she opened it and grabbed the hatchet.

"Okay no," Santana shook her head. "A hatchet is a bit extreme, blondie, I don't want to get arrested. I'm too hot for an orange prison suit." She looked at the broom in her hand and decided to keep it.

Quinn rolled her eyes. "It's not like we're going to use it, we'll just scare them."

"Are you back to your skank phase? You're crazy…" The Latina looked at her friend in disbelief. "And for the record if they press charges because a blonde psycho barged into their room with an axe, I'm not backing you up."

"And if a lunatic tries to hit you and I have to save your ass, I'll be sure to ask for a two page apology letter." The blonde retorted.

The banging on the door finally stopped, leaving the hallway dead silent as the girls walked toward the room. Quinn knocked on the door but there was no answer. "Hello? Is everything okay? We heard screaming." After a moment of silence, she turned toward Santana. "Go check the cleaning cart for a pass to open the door."

"Do I look like a maid?" The Latina frowned. "Besides, you don't find it weird that someone left it there, where is everyone?"

The blonde ignored the girl's first comment and said "I don't know and I don't care, I just want to make sure everything's okay so we can go to bed. If you have a problem I can go ask Rachel to come with me, I'm sure she'd agree."

"Fine." The tan girl sighed before rushing to the cart and after a moment, came back with a key card pass. "I hope you're decent, we're coming in." She announced before opening the door. She motioned for Quinn to go first and followed behind.

Quinn stopped dead in her track and gasped. "Oh my…"

"Please don't tell me they're naked." Santana moved next to her friend and looked around. The room was practically dark, the only light was the flickering bedside lamp on the floor, there were clothes everywhere and shattered glass. It was only when she noticed some blood and followed the trail with her eyes in the direction of the bathroom that she saw what had disturbed Quinn. On the floor was the lifeless body of a woman and a man who clearly looked sick was eating a part of her intestine. "What…" She could feel the bile in her throat and tried to force it down.

"We need to leave." The blonde whispered, slowly walking backward.

"Here you are, what are you doing here, it's not Quinn's room?" They heard Rachel call behind them.

The man turned his head and Santana saw his red eyes staring right at her. She froze as she realised his face was pale and he had blood all around his mouth. She felt Rachel lean against her side and soon after, she heard her scream.

When the man opened his mouth and snarled, it seemed to wake the girls up. "Run!" Quinn yelled.

They rushed out of the room and Quinn slammed the door shut just in time before the man could exit. They ran toward their hotel room and closed the door behind them.

"What the fuck was that?" Santana asked out of breath when she was sure nothing was approaching. She slid against the door until her body touched the floor and threw her broom to the side.

Quinn leaned again the door, panting. "I have no idea…" She put down the hatchet on the dresser. She had hesitated to take it at first but seeing what happened, she was glad she did. "But I guess I was right about the lunatic part and I think once we're done, I'll ask you for that letter of apology…" Santana glared at her but didn't answer.

Rachel looked at them wide eyed from the bed. "What is going on? What did you do? I was…"

"Lower your voice." The Latina ordered.

The diva stood up and glared at her before continuing more quietly. "I was sleeping and then I heard you call someone. You told me to go back to sleep but I couldn't. After a while since you weren't coming back I thought I'd look for you and where do I find you? In a stranger's room and then all that blood and… and… " She started hyperventilating as the scene flashed into her mind.

Quinn looked at Santana and motioned for her to do something. The Latina sighed but stood up and reached for Rachel, leading her back to the bed so she could sit. "Alright, alright, just calm down okay." She rubbed the diva's back. "Quinn, try to call the reception again."

"We need to call the police!" The brunette exclaimed.

"That's the hotel's job." The tan girl replied.

"But did you see his face?!" Rachel cried. "Something is clearly wrong with him."

"Maybe he's high." Santana shrugged. "There's some weird shit circulating in the streets."

"No one's answering." Quinn joined them and sat on the opposite bed. "And I'm not a doctor but he didn't look high." She sighed. "Something isn't right, we should call the police."

Santana nodded. "Okay, call them. I'm gonna try to call Puck to see if he can come here."

Rachel reached for her phone and made her way to the bathroom. "I'll try Kurt. I need to warn him."

"San…" Quinn called before putting her phone on speaker. _'We're sorry, but due to high call volumes, all lines are currently busy…'_

"What the…"

The blonde opened the curtain and looked outside. "Oh my god. Call Puck now, it's a bloodbath outside."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the late update, i haven't stopped running all week. But here it is!**

* * *

 **Chap 3**

Santana walked to the window and scanned the street. They were people running, cars on fire and some people fighting. "What the hell is going on?" She dialled Puck's number.

Rachel emerged from the bathroom with a worried look on her face. "Kurt told me they heard some screaming on their floor too. A woman with the same symptoms as the man we saw bit Adam so he tried to call 911 but he didn't get an answer, same for the reception of the hotel so he was about to call us for help. They're going to try to meet us here." She turned to Quinn. "What is going on? Were you able to contact anyone?"

"I don't think anyone is coming." Quinn answered sadly.

The diva frowned. "What do you mean, no one is coming?"

The blonde grabbed her friend by the arm and led her to the window. "Look outside, I don't know what happened after we left the bar but streets usually don't look like a battlefield at 3 in the morning."

The brunette gasped. "Oh my god…"

"Ah, finally!" Santana exclaimed when her call finally went through. "Puck can you hear me? Puck? What's going on outside?" She put the call on speaker when he started talking.

"It's chaos outside." Puck said. They heard a siren and some glass shattering. "We were at the hospital when… People… crazy… Blood and…"

"Puck?" Santana checked the screen to see if they were still connected. "I'm losing you, where are you?"

"On our way to your hotel… don't… okay? Just…room… too dangerous." Puck said before the call ended.

"That's not reassuring at all…" Rachel puffed some air.

* * *

A loud knock on the door broke the silence and made them jump. The girls looked at each other before Quinn reached for her hatchet. They waited in silence until they heard another urgent knock.

"It's me, open the door." Kurt urged from behind the door.

Rachel sighed in relief and rushed to open the door. She frowned when he stepped in alone. "Where's Adam?"

"He passed out so I thought I'd let him rest until I know more." Kurt explained.

"Did you see anything weird on your way here?" Santana questioned as she settled on her bed.

"No, strangely it's dead silent, except for the screaming outside." The boy answered.

"Wait a minute," Quinn stared blankly into the void before continuing. "When we came back from the bar it was already silent. I don't remember bumping into anyone and there was no clerk to welcome us."

"Do you think they shut down the hotel because of these lunatics?" Kurt asked. "I mean we didn't see any police officers or barriers to prevent us from coming in."

"Whatever is happening, it's not just here, it's all over town." The blonde pointed out.

"Maybe some loonies have escaped the town asylum." Santana shrugged. "After all, we heard some screaming when we approached the hotel but we just thought it was party goers…"

"That's your explanation?" Kurt shook his head. "I think the authorities would have done something by now if it was the case."

"We should check the news." Rachel declared.

"It's not really the time to watch tv, Rachel." Santana argued.

"It's not for entertainment." The diva rolled her eyes. "Nowadays when something big enough happens, there is always some coverage on the news and right now, it's the only way we have to find out what's going on." She grabbed the remote and turned the tv on.

They all settled on the beds as they listened to the news anchor. _'… interrupting our program to bring you an important news bulletin, we are receiving unconfirmed reports of random acts of violence from all over the city. Details are a bit confusing right now and no official statement has been made by the police regarding what is happening. We will continue to bring you coverage of the story as we get more information.'_

"See, I told you it was all over the city." Quinn paused to finish reading the news ticker. "Did you read that? A doctor lost his arm while examining a man with strange bites and rabid behaviour."

"Oh my god…" Kurt breathed out.

* * *

After 20 minutes of the same information, the news anchor finally had a new report. _'As we said earlier, there have been wide spread attacks all over the city by what witnesses have described as bloody corpses in a trance state. What's happening doesn't look to be a local phenomena as similar reports are coming in from all over the country. We still have no specific answer as to why this is happening. Reports state it could be a germ or a virus altering people's behaviour. All roads and freeway are jammed with people trying to escape the city. The governor urged the people to stay in their homes and lock their doors until the situation is contained.'_

"Are we going to die?" Rachel asked with tears in her eyes. Kurt moved closer and hugged her.

"Probably not if we haven't been exposed to this virus." Kurt tried to sound hopeful.

Once again, a loud knock on the door interrupted them. "It's Puck, hurry."

Quinn opened the door and let Puck and Finn enter. They both had scratches and blood on their clothes. Everyone stood up to look at them.

"What the hell happened?" Santana asked as she came closer.

"We have to leave the city." Puck answered hastily, a bloody baseball bat in hand.

"What? Why?" The diva nodded as Finn asked her if she was okay before continuing. "Tv said we should stay in and barricade ourselves."

Puck shook his head. "It's too dangerous here. Just pack some stuff and let's get out of here. We'll explain later."

"Where should we go?" Quinn questioned worriedly.

"We saw a few houses outside the city when we arrived today, we'll be safer there." Finn explained. "But we have to hurry."

"What are they? These crazy people, I mean…" Kurt looked at his brother then Puck.

"Man, I'm not a scientist but they look like Zombies." Puck declared as he turned toward Quinn to ask her to go pack a bag.

Santana snorted. "Please guys, this is serious, it's not one of your video games."

Finn frowned. "This is serious, Santana."

"Finn's right." Puck insisted. "We're in the army, we saw some weird shit there but these things, they're not humans anymore. This is spreading fast and police can't do shit about it. We were at the hospital and one of those things just bit a nurse's neck off, that's crazy."

"How do we know if those houses are safe? And how are we supposed to go there if it's war outside?" Santana inquired. "We can't just go out and hope for the best."

"We're wasting time, so for once shut up and do as we say." Finn replied annoyed.

"I won't take orders from your dumb ass!" The tan girl snapped.

"Santana." Rachel reached out and squeezed the girl's hand to calm the situation. "I don't like this either but they are in the military, I think we should trust them and go with their plan."

Santana growled. "You and your plans."

"Don't worry, we have a car and Finn kept his gun in case something happened during the road trip. We don't have a lot of ammo but it'll have to do. B'sides, I have a bat I found next to a dead…" Puck started before being interrupted by a high beeping noise from the tv.

They all looked at the device and saw a grey screen with the caption 'Technical difficulties, please stand by.' Suddenly, a man with some sort of angel mask appeared and started talking.

 _'_ _Greetings citizens. We are the Oracles of redemption. You have never heard of us and yet we know all of you. We've been watching you for decades, staying in the shadow while humanity kept destroying our world. War, destruction, famine and abundance, conflict of power and religion, disease and terror, this is the world you are living in and yet most of you stay oblivious, comforted by the comfort and technology you've been granted. Much like sheep, you have resigned yourself to your fate and you watch impassive behind your screens as the earth is dying._

 _Since the governments are too busy raking in money, we had decided it was our duty to help humanity save itself. The use of our resources as if they were unlimited has to stop and that's why we need to wipe the slate clean and start over. Along the centuries, we've seen how life was capable of evolving to face a new world and I'm sure our generation won't be an exception._

 _Since 7AM, we have launched our mission code 0 to offer each and every one of you a new beginning. Volunteers of our cause received a special injection before being disseminate all over the globe. This weapon is powerful and you might have witnessed the wind of change already._

 _Only the greats will prevail and nature will reclaim its rights. Survivors will build a new civilisation and this time, life won't be taken for granted. May the odds be in your favour.'_

The screen went black again and everyone looked at each other.

"What the fuck?" Santana exclaimed.

"Did someone do this on purpose?" Kurt asked.

Quinn nodded. "It's…"

"Bioterrorism…" Rachel declared with a shaky voice.

"Okay, let me get this straight." Santana held her hand out. "Some morons woke up one day and thought the solution to save the earth, humanity or whatever, was to play Russian roulette with the lives of people living on it?"

"They must have prepared this for years." Quinn said. "The virus, the volunteers, the hacking…"

"We should really get going." Puck interrupted. "Quinn, I'll take you to your room so you can pack some stuff. Kurt…" He stopped as he realised Adam wasn't with him. "Where's Mister Beans?"

Kurt frowned at the nickname. "In our room."

Puck nodded. "Okay, so Finn will go with you so you can get your stuff and we all meet here in 15 minutes max."

"What? I should stay here and protect Rachel." Finn disagreed.

Santana scoffed. "Not that I need your help but thank you for including me, constipated face."

"Finn!" Rachel cried. "That's your brother, he needs you. Santana and I will be fine, we're going to pack…"

"Wait." Kurt cut them off. "Where're Blaine and George?"

Finn opened then closed his mouth, looking sadly at the floor. "I… I'm sorry. They didn't make it out of the hospital." He scratched his head before stepping next to Kurt and patting his back. "Just, let's go get your stuff."

"Yeah…" Kurt murmured heartbroken as he followed everyone out of the room.

* * *

As soon as they were alone, Rachel stepped closer to Santana and engulfed her in a hug, as she softly started crying.

After shaking off the surprise of the embrace, Santana held her back. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Rachel pulled away and looked at her incredulously. "Seriously? What isn't wrong? I mean, we came here on vacation, we wanted to celebrate, enjoy a few days before real life begins and out of nowhere, we… it's… it's the apocalypse. This isn't supposed to happen! I might believe in God but I also trust scientists and their theories. They always laughed at this theory and now it's here! We're not prepared for this. And… Oh my god, Blaine…"

Santana sighed and put her hands on the girl's cheeks. "Hey look at me. I always sucked at science but right now it doesn't matter because it's happening. All we have to do is stick together and be safe until the authorities take care of it, okay."

Rachel sniffled. "You'll stay with me no matter what, right?" She asked hopefully.

The tan girl chuckled but when she saw Rachel was serious she rolled her eyes. "Well, you're annoying and all but after living with you for 4 years, it would be weird not having you around so, I guess we're stuck together."

The diva smiled as she wiped her tears away. "We are." She kissed her friend's cheek before stepping away. "We should pack now."

Santana tried to ignore the weird glimmering look Rachel gave her as her conversation with Quinn flashed in her mind. "Fuck…"

The brunette turned around. "Did you say something?"

The raven-haired girl cleared her throat. "No, just, we should take the alcohol in the fridge, we might need it."

"But it's expensive!" Rachel interjected.

Santana rolled her eyes. "It's the apocalypse, we don't have to pay."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

 **A/N:** _Guest and your less than nice review. If you had the guts to review with your name, we could have discussed this but since you didn't, I'll answer here. I'm not really in the mood so miss me with your patriotic bullshit. American or not, not all soldiers are good or smart, some would flee like in every other country because it's human, save yourself and the one you love first. It's not just a riot, it's the apocalypse, I'm not sure they have a pamphlet about 'how to be hero during apocalypse 101'. Go to a base? Sure! They have civilians with them and if the soldiers were helping in the hospital and streets, who says no one got bitten and went back to the base and infected others without knowing it was contagious yet. It takes time to evaluate the situation and sometimes, it's already too late. They don't know where the base is and they don't really have time to search so they go to a place they think is safe. Being a soldier doesn't make you invincible and not everyone join for the love of their country. That's for the first part._

 _About the characterisation, no one complained before so if you don't like my take on it, you're free to stop reading, I won't mind. And about Rachel, she's always explaining everything, always providing details on stuff, so of course she would be factual about it, not because she thinks San is dumb, but because that's who she is._

 _Now for the family part, I'm sorry, I didn't realise that while panicking and trying to escape and go to safety they should all stop and settle to call their whole phone book to check if everyone is safe, especially when the lines are busy. I mention it later on, when everything calms down a little and they have time to think unlike when they are trying to get out of the hotel to find a shelter but of course you would have to wait and read instead of rushing to criticize my work._

 _So again, don't feel obligated to read my work if you don't like it, there are other fics out there. This type of comments is another reason why I stopped writing for the glee fandom and frankly, after that, I just want to go back to my Supercorp world - even though it's far from perfect, at least there's some respect - and drop this so thank you for making this writing even more difficult._

* * *

While they were all getting ready, Finn and Kurt quickly reached the boy's room. Kurt opened the door quickly and switched the light on. He froze when he saw Adam stare at him with soulless eyes from behind the bed.

"Adam?" Kurt called carefully. Adam snarled before rushing toward him.

"Kurt, move!" Finn pushed his step brother to the side but wasn't fast enough to avoid the collision with Adam. They both fell to the ground as Finn struggled to not get bitten.

"Oh my god…" Kurt breathed out as he moved backward until his back hit the wall. "Adam…"

"Kurt, help me!" Finn turned his face to the side just in time to avoid a bite. "Do something!" He yelled.

Finn's plea for help seemed to pull Kurt out of his daze. He stepped to the side, reaching for the bedside lamp and smashed it on his head. Adam growled and looked at him. It was enough of a distraction to allow Finn to push Adam away and grab his gun. He aimed at the English man but seemed to hesitate.

"No!" Kurt shouted but Adam surged forward, forcing Finn to pull the trigger, shooting him right in the head.

Kurt looked at Adam's body on the floor and started crying. "Oh god, what did you do?"

"I…I'm sorry, I had to. He…. He would have killed us." Finn reached out and squeezed Kurt's shoulder but the man pushed his hand away.

"Don't touch me!" Kurt cried painfully. 'We could have tied him up and kept him here until we knew more about this. They could find a cure!" He kneeled down and held his lifeless boyfriend.

"I… I don't think there is one... I'm sorry…" Finn stood next to him in silence for a while until he noticed the time. "I'm sorry but you should pack, we have to go."

"I don't want to leave him here." Kurt sniffled as he held Adam's body closer.

"We don't have a choice..." Finn looked around and spotted a backpack. "Let me help." He walked toward it and grabbed some tee shirts.

"Don't! I'll do it." Kurt kissed Adam's forehead before standing up. "Just wait outside."

Finn frowned. "But, it's dangerous…"

"Go wait outside!" Kurt yelled. Finn nodded and opened the door, checking to see the hallway was secure before leaving the room.

* * *

10 minutes later, the group was ready to leave the hotel. They were able to descend the staircase without a hitch but they knew things would be more complicated once they reached the lobby.

As predicted, as soon as Puck poked his head out of the staircase door, he saw what used to be the clerk eating someone on the floor with others zombies at the end of the hall. He scanned the rest of the lobby but it didn't look like there were others. He closed the door back silently and turned toward his friends. "Okay so there are at least 3 zombies out there, they're busy feeding on some poor dude so I think we can just sneak out and go to the car without them noticing."

"Aren't we going to help him?" Rachel asked, her hand around Kurt's waist since the man was barely reacting since he left his room.

Puck shook his head. "No, there's nothing we can do for him at this point."

"What's the plan?" Finn questioned.

"As soon as I open the door, we walk fast but without sudden movements toward the exit. Finn, you'll go first with your gun and I'll bring up the rear. Stay quiet and if anything happens, run." Puck stated.

Everybody nodded and after a few seconds of silence, Puck opened the door again. He checked the lobby and when he was sure the zombies were still busy, he motioned for the group to start moving. Finn, followed by Quinn, then Kurt, Rachel and Santana, walked carefully toward the exit.

When they were halfway through the lobby, Kurt heard a noise to his left and stopped abruptly to look if there was something behind the reception desk. Rachel, not expecting Kurt to stop, bumped into him, sending him flying against the counter and knocking the bell on it. Everyone froze, praying that the sound hadn't caught the zombies' attention. It wasn't long before they heard the sound of a dead man growling behind the counter and soon, from down the hall.

"Run!" Puck shouted before trying to get rid of one of the zombies down the hall.

Finn was at the door in an instant, desperately trying to open it but it was blocked. It was an old wooden double door and it looked like someone had blocked the handle from the outside. Maybe the last living employee had left the building while they were packing their bags and had decided to block all his former colleagues in, who knew, but no matter who had blocked the door, they did a good job.

Quinn saw Finn try to kick down the door and decided to come and help with her axe. "Move!" She ordered as she raised her weapon and smashed it right in the middle of the door where the wood was thinner. "I feel like Jack Torrance."

Finn looked at her confused. "Who?"

"The Shining?" The blonde saw the tall boy's clueless face and rolled her eyes. "Nevermind... Anyway, I knew it was a good idea to take the hatchet, i'll have to remind Santana of that." She smashed the hatchet into the door again but stopped when she heard Kurt scream. She turned around and saw a zombie tackle him to the ground. She stepped forward to help her friend but Santana stopped her.

"No, I've got this. Open the door, we have to leave now!" Santana pushed Rachel who was in shock in the corner and turned around to grab the fire extinguisher. Without losing a second, she rushed toward Kurt as the poor boy was struggling to keep the zombie's mouth away from his neck. She raised her makeshift weapon and bashed the zombie's head as hard as she could, hearing his skull crack in the process. Kurt hastily pushed him away and crawled backward toward Rachel. The diva finally snapped of her torpor and bent down to help him stand.

"Are you okay?" The petite brunette asked as she scanned the man's body.

"I... I don't know, I think..." Kurt answered all shaken.

Santana slammed the fire extinguisher against the zombie's head a few more times until she was sure he was really dead. When he stopped moving, she froze and stared at the body in front of her, as if realising what had just happened. She had killed someone, well what used to be someone. Suddenly, her ears started ringing and everything was a blur. She was aware of Rachel's scream, Kurt's frightened face, Quinn calling Finn an idiot and asking him to do something, Finn bumping into her and raising his gun and then a gun shot. She blinked a few times, trying to focus back on the present. Santana turned her head and saw a zombie of almost 6'4 feet tall fall dead next to Puck who was still wrestling with a zombie on the floor. Finn tried to aim at the dead girl but out of nowhere, another zombie rushed toward him.

"Finn!" Rachel shouted to warn him but it was already too late, the living dead jumped on his back.

The tall boy yelped in surprise, dropping his gun as he moved backward to slam the zombie against the wall.

"San. Santana," Kurt called his friend's attention. "Do something!"

The raven-haired girl seemed to finally come back to her senses and realise what was happening. She turned toward Kurt and practically throw the fire extinguisher at him. "If anything dead comes near you two or Quinn, do what I did to Mister Clerk over there." She nodded toward the dead zombie on the floor. She looked at Quinn who was almost done breaking the door open, at least enough for them to go out through the hole. "Q hurry up, we're running out of time." Without waiting for an answer she ran toward Finn, grabbing his gun off the floor and quickly aiming at the zombie once she was close enough. The tall boy froze and looked at her wide eyed. "Don't move." She barely gave the man the time to react as she pulled the trigger, hitting the zombie on the shoulder and effectively pushing her away from Finn. Soon after, Puck was finally able to kill the zombie he was fighting and stood up.

Finn stared at Santana, opening his mouth as if he was trying to say something.

"We can go out, hurry up!" Quinn shouted, ready to climb through the door hole.

"Let's go." Puck ordered, grabbing his bat and walking toward the exit as Rachel and Kurt were already waiting outside.

"You're welcome." Santana smacked the tall boy's arm before grabbing it. "Now stop acting like a fish, we have to leave." She pulled him with her as she walked toward the exit.

* * *

Stepping outside of the hotel was like stepping out of your house after a tornado, there were smashed windows, broken cars, baggage and clothes on the ground, dead bodies, except not all of them were really dead. They all looked around with shock and sadness at how fast the situation had deteriorated. However; they didn't have much time to get their bearings when a small group of zombies was walking in their direction. After barely making it out of the hotel alive, they weren't ready to face another group of brain dead people.

"We have to go to the car, now!" Quinn commanded.

"This way!" Puck moved forward and led the group to their car.

"You can't be serious?" Santana said as soon as her eyes landed on the old brown Toyota stationwagon in front of her.

"Someone stole Finn's car while we were at the hospital." Puck stated, opening the car they had parked in an alley.

"And all you could find is this piece of garbage, seriously, it must be older than my abuela."

"It's not like we had the time to be picky, Santana, so be grateful we have a car at all!" Finn snapped, grabbing his jacket on the driver's seat and putting it on.

The raven-haired girl shot daggers at him and growled. "You're already making me regret saving your ass."

"I'm just telling the truth so there's need to be a bitch." Finn stood in front of the woman, a frown on his face.

"Stop it!" Kurt shouted annoyed. "We don't have time for that, we should get in the car and go as far as we can from this town."

Santana snorted. "Yeah, more as fast as this piece of junk can go."

"You can to stay here if you want." The tall boy had a weird glint in his eyes.

"Wouldn't you like that?" Santana raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms.

Finn looked at her confused. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Enough!" Rachel cried, surprising everyone as she seemed to snap out of the daze she was in since the hotel. "Everyone get in the car, I don't want to stay here a second more and these... these zombies if that's how you want to call them, are getting closer." The group nodded and soon Finn and Puck were in the front seats and Kurt and Quinn behind.

Santana was still glaring at Finn and mumbling in Spanish when Rachel approached her. "Santana, get in the car."

"Hey, you're not the boss of me alright, why can he be a prick and get away with it and I'm the bitch?"

"Get. In. The. Car." The brunette insisted, grabbing her friend's arm and pushing her toward the car.

"No need for violence, hobbit!"

"I'm tired Santana and this is not the time." The diva said wearily.

"I'm going, jeez, calm your tits."

The women got in the car and Finn drove off, avoiding zombies and debris on the road.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

A/n: Thank you for the reviews and support.

* * *

Unfortunately, Santana was right and the car broke down before they could reach the group of houses Finn and Puck had seen before they arrived in New-Orleans. They were still pretty far from them and they needed to find a new car fast. The only good thing was that daylight had finally appeared.

"So I don't want to say I told you so but, who am I kidding, of course I want to, I told you this car was trash, why not show up with horses while you were at it." Santana slammed the car door after getting out and looked around her.

"Then why don't you find a new one instead of complaining." Finn snapped.

"And where exactly?" Santana raised her hand and gestured around at the fields and couple of demolished houses surrounding them. "Am I supposed to pull it out of my ass?"

"Well…" The tall boy started.

"You two are exhausting." Quinn cut them off. "San come with me and let's try to find a car that works."

"We shouldn't split up, it's too risky!" Puck said quickly.

"What should we do?" Kurt asked.

Puck looked at his right than his left. "Just walk straight ahead, they're probably other houses."

"Then why not stop there and settle?" Kurt questioned.

"It's not secure enough," Puck insisted. "These houses are old and we probably won't find much in it. The houses we saw where in a new suburb area built after Katrina, people are wealthy there and should have plenty of resources."

"And why do you think they would leave their houses if they're safe?" Santana pointed out.

"Because even rich people panic." Puck replied. "And some of them probably left to go to their vacation house away from civilisation or tried to reach the airport, who knows, but I don't believe for one second none of these houses are empty, we just need to find which one."

"What in God's name were you doing there? It's not even in the direction of Lima." Quinn asked suspiciously.

"We took a detour." Finn answered with a shrug.

"Why?"

"We heard some weird stories about an area around here, so we wanted to check it out and that's when we saw all these huge ass houses." Puck explained.

"You two need a life." Santana stated before looking at Rachel who was being uncharacteristically quiet.

Everyone started walking as the men led the way.

Santana stayed behind and moved next Rachel, lightly bumping her shoulder. "You're okay?"

"Is that even a question?"

Santana frowned. "Jeez, are you on your period or what?"

"This is serious, Santana," Rachel cried. "It's… our world turned into a nightmare in one night and everything is going so fast and it's scary and I can't seem to forget all the blood and screams and..."

The tan girl sighed. "Look, we're all confused about this but it's not really the time to be introspective, you need to wake up and be prepared, anything could happen."

"Well I'm sorry my reaction isn't to your liking, Santana," The diva answered bitterly. "I wasn't prepared for this."

"Because we were?" The former cheerleader said incredulously.

"You killed that man." The petite girl reminded her.

"Zombie." Santana corrected.

"I'm sorry?" Rachel looked at her confused.

"He was already dead, it's not like I..."

"I know but," The diva tucked some hair behind her ear. "You still did it, you still helped Kurt when I was standing there, frozen and couldn't even help or move."

"It happens," Santana tried to reassure. "Look at Finn, he wasn't the most reactive person either."

"But he still helped." The brunette insisted. She paused, thinking for a minute before adding "What if they aren't really dead? What if the organisation has a cure and is going to use it, how can you take away their lives?"

The tan girl sighed again. "Listen, I'm gonna tell you something and if you ever repeat it, I'll end you and blame the zombies, got it?"

Rachel nodded, knowing full well it was just an empty threat.

"I froze too. After I killed that zombie who attacked Kurt, it's like I couldn't move, I was just staring at the blood and everything was blurry and what used to be a man, a breathing being, was just laying still on the ground because of me." The taller girl confessed. "But then, I realised it was him or us, and I made the right call. He was already dead, we aren't. And even if those bastards have a cure, you can't cure death, you can't bring them back from that. I guess, it could work if you get it as a vaccine to prevent you from being infected or something, but all these zombies, they're just corpses."

"I don't know what to say…"

Santana snorted. "That would be a first!"

Feeling a rush of affection for the girl, Rachel stepped to the side and hugged her. "Thanks."

"For what?" Santana asked.

"Saving Kurt when I couldn't, helping Finn, protecting me and making sure I was okay."

"I didn't protect you." The raven-haired girl tried to deny.

"You pushed me in the corner, away from the zombie." Rachel pointed out.

"It's because you were in the way."

"Whatever you say, Santana." The petite girl squeezed her tighter, kissing her cheek before breaking the embrace. She smiled and jogged to join Kurt.

Santana looked dumbfounded at the girl until she felt eyes on her, she turned her attention toward Quinn who was smirking at her. "That bitch..." She shook her head and hurried to catch up with the others.

* * *

After almost an hour's walk and some fruitless house searching, they finally found a farm with an old jeep in the barn.

They made sure the place was empty before searching the house for food. They hadn't eaten in a while and they could use a little break before hitting the road again. They found some cans that were out of date but still edible. By the sight of the house, the place had been abandoned way before the outbreak. Finn and Kurt were working on the jeep, trying to make it start, their dad had taught them a few things and luckily, they were some old tools in the corner of the barn.

The group gathered in the living room of the house to eat lunch in a semblance of normalcy. The meal was quiet, all of them seemed to be lost in thought, wondering if their family and friends were fine since the phone service was out and they had no way to reach them.

Soon, the boys were back in the barn to work on the car and the girls were looking around the house for more things that could be useful.

* * *

After 30 minutes, Finn barged into the house. "The car is working, we're ready to go." He stepped to the side to let Kurt and Puck in.

"Do we have to?" Rachel questioned.

"Why?" The tall boy looked at his ex in confusion.

"It's not so bad here." The diva explained. "We found more food, granted, most of it is out of date but still edible, we have space, there is a well in the backyard for the water. There's no electricity but it could be worse. Who knows what we could find if we leave, at least here we know it's relatively safe, we could stay, at least until we run out of food."

"I have to agree with Rachel on this," Kurt jumped in. "Stick with the devil we know, it's not like we ever visited this suburb. There's no way to know if we can get in so we should stay here and if something happens, we still have the car to leave."

"What? I thought you were on our side." Puck said.

"You're both in the military so I trust you know what you're talking about," Kurt stated. "But you're asking us to take a leap of faith here and we can barely defend ourselves with the weapons we have."

"You don't need any, we're going to get there and then we'll be safe." Finn affirmed.

"How can you be so sure?" Kurt insisted.

"I kind of agree." Quinn declared. "Sure, we would be safer in a more recent house but I'm afraid we might run into unfriendly people that don't want us there."

Santana had long decided to stay out of the conversation, knowing too well it would go downhill so instead, she was searching around for a gun or ammo. After all, they were in a barn, farmers always had guns and she hoped the previous owner at least left one behind. She was about to open a cabinet when she heard Finn and Rachel raise their voices. Intrigued, she walked back toward the group just in time to see the tall boy grab Rachel's arm forcefully.

"You will follow us because I won't leave you behind, do you hear me?" Finn shouted.

"Finn, let me go, you're hurting me." Rachel whined in pain.

That was when Santana saw red. She ran toward him and violently pushed him. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" She grabbed Rachel's arm softly and pulled her toward Kurt for safety.

"Stay out of this, Santana, this is between me and Rachel!" Finn roared. His eyes red with anger and sweat all over his forehead.

"The hell I will! Rachel is her own person, touch her again and I will fucking kill you myself." Santana threatened.

"I'm not scared of you." Finn pushed her back. Quinn and Puck stepped closer, ready to stop them.

The tan girl grabbed his shirt to bring him closer before pushing him once more, ripping a part of his shirt in the process, she was about to surge forward again but stopped when she noticed a red mark on his collarbone. Without hesitation, she pulled on Finn's jacket to see what it was. She gasped when she saw a bite and slowly took a step backward.

"Guys, stop it!" Puck stepped between them.

Quinn looked at Santana and saw the distraught look on her face. "What?"

Santana pointed at Finn's neck and collarbone but the man quickly put the jacket back, "It's nothing!"

"He's bitten." The raven-haired girl breathed out.

"What?" Everyone exclaimed in shock.

"Dude, is that true?" Puck questioned.

"No, she's lying!" Finn denied.

"Is it why you put your jacket on so quickly when we reached the car?" Quinn asked, always aware of people's action when they though no one was looking.

"What? No, I was just cold."

"You're never cold…" Rachel interjected in a small voice, not moving from her spot next to Kurt.

"But…" Finn tried.

Quinn wanting to be sure, just stepped forward and pulled on Finn's jacket, revealing the bite. "Oh my god, it's true…"

"Fuck…" Puck mumbled.

"What are we going to do?" Kurt inquired, almost scared to hear the answer.

Silence filled the room until Finn started to panic. "I'm sure it's nothing, I feel fine, there's no need to do anything, alright. Let's just load the car and leave."

"You can't stay with us it's too risky." Santana was the only one who dared to talk.

"You bitch, you can't wait to get rid of me so you can have Rachel, can you?" Finn growled.

"What the fuck are you talking about? There's nothing going on with Rachel and don't forget I saved your life back at the hotel."

Finn shook his head. "You did it just because you know Rachel would have resented you for it. You don't have a heart, you just want to get into her pants."

Santana surged forward but was stopped by Quinn. "San, calm down, it won't help the situation."

The diva intervened while still standing at a safe distance. "Finn, that's not fair, Santana is not heartless and what's happening between us is none of your business. You and I broke up a long time ago, you can't tell me what to do!"

"So there is something going on!"

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Santana raised her hand up in exasperation.

"Why are you so angry? And... Sweaty?" Rachel demanded, crinkling her nose.

"I'm sure it's the effect of the biting." Santana said quickly.

"Shut up!" Finn roared, bringing his hands to his head while mumbling things.

"He can't stay with us, he could transform." Santana stated.

"As hard as it is to say, I agree with Santana, it's too dangerous." Quinn agreed.

Rachel frowned. "We don't know that, if he wasn't in direct contact with the virus, maybe he won't transform."

"Don't be so fucking naïve," The tan girl snapped. "They told us what happened at the hospital, Kurt saw it first hand with Adam, what more do you need?"

The brunette looked hurt by the harsh answer but continued. "He's our friend, we're not savages, we can't just leave him behind."

"She's right, we can't just leave him there." Kurt jumped in. "But I saw Adam, I looked into his soulless eyes, I know what this... virus can do and I barely survived. He had the same injuries as Finn and he... I..." He couldn't finish his sentence, overwhelmed by the memories.

Puck startled everyone when he suddenly punched the wall on the left. "Fuck, that's not fair!"

Quinn approached him and rubbed his back in comfort. "I know..."

"Guys, you can't be serious?" Finn cried, clearly agitated. When he saw the look on his friends' faces, he knew it was pointless. He desperately scanned the room in search of anything that could help him and soon his eyes landed on his gun on the table. "I won't let you kill me like a dog..." He whispered.

Then, everyone watched helplessly as things went in slow motion. Finn kissed Rachel without warning, telling her he was sorry before rushing to grab the gun and bringing it to his temple. He looked at all his friends one last time. "Good luck, see you on the other side." He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger, his body slowly falling to the ground as the gun shot echoed through the room.

Everyone screamed and looked in horror as Finn's body lay in a pool of blood. Rachel quickly kneeled down next to him, crying, soon followed by Kurt as the three others looked shell shocked.

* * *

After what seemed like an eternity, Puck finally spoke up, his voice hoarse like he was trying to hold back his tears. "I don't want to stay here, search the house for anything we could use. We stick to the plan, we're leaving in an hour tops." He walked past the group and smashed a few chairs in the kitchen before leaving the house for the barn.

"We can't leave him here…" Rachel's voice broke.

"What do you want to do with his body?" Kurt asked.

"We could bury him in the backyard." Santana offered to everyone's surprise. "I mean, if you want to." She shrugged. She might not have been a fan of the man, but no matter how much they didn't get along, he was a part of their gleek family and she would never have wanted him dead.

"Kurt?" Rachel looked at him for confirmation.

"I think we should... He wasn't perfect…" He took a deep breath when he felt a sob coming. "But he didn't deserve that. I didn't get the chance to bury Adam's body, so I would like to give Finn a proper rest..."

"Alright, I'm gonna look around for a shovel and I'll start digging a hole, you three bring him to the backyard." Quinn decided to take the lead. If they had to leave in an hour, they needed to be fast so they could search the rest of the house for supplies too.

"I'll look for some sheets or something to carry him more easily." Santana left without waiting for an answer. They buried Finn and took a few minutes to say some nice words before going back into the house.

Santana didn't find any guns, just a crowbar and more cans. They filled some bottles of water from the well and loaded everything in the car.

* * *

20 minutes later, they were on their way to the suburb area the boys were talking about, Puck and Quinn were in the front, scanning the road while Kurt was lost in thought in the back seat. Next to him was Rachel half asleep on Santana's shoulder.

Suddenly Rachel spoke. "Thanks, again."

"I thought you were asleep." Santana smiled despite herself at the diva's sleepy face. "Again? For what?"

"You didn't have to help with Finn or even offer to bury him."

The tan girl shrugged. "Well despite what he said, I might be a bitch but I'm not totally heartless."

"You're not, you're amazing." The diva kissed her cheek and snuggled against her shoulder.

Kurt smiled at her as she tried to hide her blush. "Shut up." Why did everyone think there was something between them, they were just friends, it wasn't her fault if Rachel was all touchy feely.

He raised his hand in surrender. Santana turned her head and glanced through the window, they had lost some close friends in two days, their vacation turned into hell in the blink of an eye and she didn't know how long they would be able to survive at this rate, or if they were even doing the right thing right now. She guessed she would figure it out soon.

* * *

It took them some time to reach the gated community but they still arrived before sundown.

Puck parked the car far enough off the main gate to not draw suspicion as they waited for the night. It was easier to get in and walk in the shadow than just barge in, especially since the place was lucky enough to still have power. They were no signs of zombies around but there were two guards at the gate entrance, like they had volunteered to do some surveillance. Once it was dark enough, they got out of the car and looked for an entrance.

After 15 minutes, they decided to just climb over the fence and find a house without any light. They found one at the end of the side road, a little bit back.

Quinn was able to break in without busting any windows and after making sure the place was empty, they quickly settled inside. There was food, hot water and electricity. They pondered if they should stay there when they realised it had been recently occupied but it was too late to move now. They would figure it out in the morning.

* * *

The next day, the group of friends stayed alert for any sign of the owners coming back to the house even though they didn't. The searched the place for anything useful, putting everything in the backpacks they found in a closet.

At night, Santana was in bed in one of the bedrooms, reading a book she had found on a shelf when there was a knock on the door. "Come in."

"Hey." Rachel said as she opened the door.

Santana put the book on the night stand. "Hey, what's up?"

"I can't sleep. I was wondering if I could stay with you for tonight." The diva asked almost shyly.

It wasn't the first time Rachel and her had shared a bed but it was the first time the girl was explicitly asking for permission. "Hmmm…" Santana didn't know what to say.

"We don't have to talk, it's just…" The brunette trailed off.

The tan girl sighed before patting the spot next to her. "Come here hobbit, tell auntie tana what's wrong?" The thankful smile Rachel gave her could illuminate the room and Santana tried to ignore how warm it made her feel inside.

The petite girl lifted the cover and quickly lay down next to Santana, snuggling against her side without a second thought. "I keep thinking about what's coming next."

Santana stiffened at first but when the diva absentmindedly started playing with her hand, she started relaxing. She cleared her throat to focus on the conversation. "What about it?"

Rachel sighed. "I don't know, that's the thing. How long are we going to stay here? If people find out we're crashing here, what's going to happen? If we have to leave, where are we going to go?"

"You shouldn't think about all that."

"Except we should." The diva insisted. "We need plans, and… and contingency plans."

"We'll figure something out at some point but we don't know what's going to happen. Planning looks nice on paper but it's more complicated than that."

"But I need it, I need to feel somehow in control because…" The brunette's voice broke. "We lost so much already and I can't…"

"Hey, hey, don't cry." Santana said softer that she intended.

"I'm sorry." Rachel whispered between sobs.

"It's okay, I'm here." The tan girl reassured. "I'll talk to Puck tomorrow and we'll discuss it, alright." The petite girl nodded as she cuddled her side tighter. "Okay, so hum, let's, hum, sleep."

Santana turned off the light. She closed her eyes, trying to ignore the way her heart beat a little faster as Rachel was holding for dear life.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

In the morning, Santana was awoken by a not so soft knock on the door. She growled but didn't move, too comfortable in the warmth gently resting against her body.

There was a second knock before the door was pushed open. "Wake up sleepy-head, we have… Oh…Oooohhhh." Quinn said.

Santana snapped open one eye to see what was going on. She saw the girl smirk and opened her second eye to follow her line of sight. Rachel was lying half on top of her, still sound asleep. "That's not…"

"Mhhh mmhmhh…" Quinn's smirk became bigger. "Sure it isn't… Come downstairs when you're done and bring your little girlfriend with you."

"She's not my girlfriend!" Santana whispered-yelled, feeling Rachel stir on top of her. "Crap…"

"Whatever you say. I'll wait downstairs." The blonde winked before closing the door behind her.

"What's going on?" The diva mumbled sleepily.

"They're waiting for us downstairs, just… get up." The tan girl pulled away hurriedly and stepped out of the bed, grabbing her sweater and putting her shoes on before Rachel could even react.

"What time is it?" The diva stretched on the bed.

"8h30." Santana quickly looked away from the brunette when she noticed her top had rolled up and she could see a part of her belly. She really needed to get a grip, they were just friends, it was just Kurt and Quinn with their stupid ideas that was messing with her head. She walked toward the door. "Meet me downstairs." She said before leaving the room.

* * *

Puck had inspected the perimeter early in the morning and all he could say was that the two closest houses to theirs were inhabited by families. They had food and electricity and they seemed to live like it wasn't the apocalypse outside. The soldier even saw a guard try to shoot a man who wanted to find shelter in their community, which was clearly a red flag.

The group of friends were reunited around the dining room table.

"I think it's weird," Kurt said. "I mean, there are guards at the gate, patrols, it looks more like a Military town for the soldiers' families than a rich community."

"It wouldn't look like that if it was the case." Puck informed him.

"Then where are we?" Quinn questioned.

Puck sighed. "I don't know, okay."

"But it was your plan." Santana pointed out.

"I know, alright, but it's not Lima or my base," Puck defended himself. "I don't know this town; I just thought this place would be safe."

"Great! Until when?" Santana raised her eyebrow. "Because there's a risk someone kicks us out and from the look of it, it won't be done nicely."

"Long enough for the government to control the situation." Puck declared.

The tan girl scoffed. "Please, we've all seen the news, they don't do shit. They're as helpless as we are, except they have guns and bunkers to hide in."

"So what's your plan, smartass?" Puck asked annoyed.

Santana glared at him. "I don't know dimwit, maybe you should have thought about it before leading us in the middle of a militia."

"Stop!" Rachel interrupted. "We need to stick together, we can't fight all the time. If this is a tight community, they'll quickly realise we're not one of them and we don't know how they'll react to outsiders but if what Puck saw is any indication, it won't be a warm welcome. I think… I think we should explore the neighbourhood and find another place to live."

"But it's secure here," Puck insisted. "We just have to be discreet and not use the lights."

"Secure from the zombies maybe but what about humans?" Kurt inquired.

"Fine…" Puck caved. "Let's finish searching the house and tomorrow, we'll try to find a new house to live in.

They spent the rest of the day sorting clothes and supplies and packing food, the tension palpable between them. Since they didn't want to use the lights to not draw attention, they walked around with small candles.

After dinner, the girls and Kurt decided to go to bed while Puck kept watch, just in case.

* * *

In the middle of the night, Santana woke up at the sound of shouting. She shook Rachel to wake her up since the girl had insisted on sleeping in her room again and they rushed downstairs.

Quinn and Kurt were already there, standing behind Puck who was aiming at a group of 2 men and 2 women. Santana stopped abruptly and took a step back, hiding behind the stairs wall.

"I'm gonna ask again, what are you doing here?" The man who seemed to be the leader asked.

"I told you already, we thought the house was empty and we needed shelter for a few days." Puck explained calmly despite aiming at him.

"Well tough luck, this is our house so you're gonna have to leave, now." The second man said.

"We don't want any trouble." Quinn stated. "Just let us grab our things and we'll be out of your way."

The leader smirked. "Oh no,princess, that's our stuff now."

"No way!" Kurt exclaimed.

Santana turned to look at Rachel. "Go get everyone's backpack and don't make a sound."

Rachel frowned. "What? Why?"

"Just go!" Santana shooed her before focusing back on the situation in front of her. The two men had guns, one of the women had a big knife and the other a baseball bat. Puck might have his gun and Kurt the crowbar but they clearly didn't stand a chance. She scanned around the room and spotted the hatchet against the dresser closest to her. She kneeled down and crawled toward it, careful not to be seen. Luckily, the intruders were too focused on Puck to notice. She made her way back to the stairs.

"You're gonna give us what you have, because I'm pretty sure it belongs to us already and you're gonna leave without making a fuss." The leader commanded.

Puck shook his head. "I can't do that, we need the minimum to survive."

The leader chuckled. "Do I look like I care?"

Rachel was back, struggling to carry all the backpacks. "What now?" She asked in a whisper.

"We have to reach to kitchen to use the backdoor." The tan girl explained.

"But we can't leave them here!"

"We aren't, just trust me, okay." Santana locked eyes with Rachel to make sure the girl agreed.

The diva nodded and motioned for her to start moving. They silently crawled toward the kitchen, careful not to make any noise with all the bags. Santana grabbed the car key from the table before they exited the room through the back door.

Santana put the car key in the brunette's hand. "Go to the car, start it and be ready to leave at any time."

"I won't leave you," Rachel argued. "They need our help!"

"I'm going to help them and you too by being ready to drive us away from here." Santana insisted.

The petite girl sighed. "Fine but, please be careful." She hugged her friend tightly.

The tan girl hugged back. "You too." On an impulse, she kissed the corner of the girl's mouth, despite aiming for the cheek, before pushing her gently away. She grabbed her hatchet tightly and walked along the wall toward the front door. Since it was still open, she had to be careful not to be seen. The tension had escalated since she left the room and if she wanted to act, she'd have to do it quick. She pondered her options for a moment, wondering who she should attack first. It was soon clear she needed to disarm the leader while hopefully, her friends would take care of the others.

Santana stood up, hatchet raised as she soundlessly approached the leader. She saw Puck stare at her and tilted her head to show him he was supposed to attack the other man.

Puck nodded slightly and took a step forward.

"What…" The leader started, surprised by Puck's move but he didn't get the chance to finish his sentence when Santana slammed her weapon into his back.

After that, everything went fast, there was a gun shot, Puck yelped in pain as he surged forward to tackle the gun man to the floor, another gun shot, Kurt was able to knock down the woman with the baseball bat while Quinn was wrestling the girl with the knife, people were screaming, another shout of pain, this time Quinn was the one hurt.

Kurt turned around just in time to see the woman fighting Quinn stab his friend in the stomach. "Quinn!" He rushed toward her.

The blonde quickly took advantage of her opponent's lack of attention to remove the knife in her stomach and violently stab her, before falling to the floor.

Santana removed the hatchet and slammed the bottom of it against the man's head to knock him out. She darted toward Quinn, ready to help her when she saw Puck wasn't standing up from the floor. She moved toward him and saw his chest was bleeding profusely. "Oh my god, Puck." He had been shot in the fight and it wasn't pretty. She kneeled down.

"You should see the other guy." He joked before coughing blood.

Santana glanced at the body next to him, the man was clearly dead, but at what price. She applied pressure on Puck's wound. "Yeah, he had it coming." She tried to joke as tears started to fall from her eyes.

"San, we need to go before someone comes to investigate the gun shots." Kurt was carrying Quinn bridal style, ready to go. "Where's Rachel?"

"Yeah." The raven-haired girl grabbed Puck's arm, ready to lift him up when he growled in pain. "Go to the car, Rachel is already there. I'll be right behind you!" She told Kurt who nodded and rushed outside.

"Don't, just go!" Puck whispered.

"What? No, I won't leave you behind." Santana tried to lift him up again but fell back.

"Yes, we both know this wound is fatal, I'd only slow you down and you need to take care of Quinn."

"Puck…" The raven-haired woman begged, a sob escaping her.

The man took a shallow breath. "Santana, please."

"I…I…" The tan girl wiped away her tears, trying to focus on the situation.

"Just go, I'll try to buy you some time if anyone shows up." Puck smiled lazily.

"I'm sorry." Santana said before kissing his forehead.

"Take care of them." Puck squeezed her hand.

"I will." Santana stood up, glancing at him one last time before grabbing her weapon and the leader's gun. She sniffled and rushed outside of the house toward the car.

The last thing they heard as Rachel drove off at high speed was gunshots…


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

 **A/n:** Reviews make my day

* * *

They drove aimlessly for a while, tension then sadness filling the car. Quinn was unconscious on the back seat, bleeding as Kurt applied pressure on her stomach wound while ignoring the pain in his ribs after a bad hit from the girl he fought.

Rachel was a nervous wreck, absentmindedly looking through the window of the passenger's seat. She had let Santana drive after hearing what happened while she was waiting in the car. When her tears made her eyes so blurry they almost crashed into a tree, Santana all but demanded to drive.

Despite trying to create some distance between them and New Orleans, they found themselves back there. Santana knew it wasn't a good idea but she wasn't sure what place they could call safe anymore. When she saw a zombie paramedic walking along the road, an idea popped into her head. "The hospital!"

"Did you say something?" Rachel turned her head to look at her friend.

"We should go to the hospital!" Santana repeated.

"Alright did I miss something?" Kurt looked at her as if he never expected her to come up with such a dumb idea. "We can't, from what Puck and Finn told us, it was full of zombies." His voice slightly broke at the mention of their friends. "Do you have a death wish?"

The raven-haired girl frowned and looked at her friend through the rear view mirror. "Not this one, the old one."

The diva looked at her confused. "What are you talking about?"

"There's an abandoned hospital, what is it called again, Char…Charity Hospital or something. It was abandoned after Katrina and rumours said there're still meds and equipment in it."

"How do you know about that?" The brunette raised an eyebrow.

Santana scowled. "Why does it matter?"

"Because we need a bit more than 'rumor has it' to go there." Rachel stated. "Quinn needs help now and if we don't find anything there, we'll lose a considerable amount of time that could have been used to find another place with medical supplies."

"I used to watch videos of dudes exploring empty places on Youtube when I was bored and this guy said it was still full of stuff since they closed it. They couldn't explore the place because the police were around." The tan girl explained. "We don't have to worry about the police now, they must be dead or hiding somewhere. We won't have to worry about zombies either if the place is abandoned. We'll just have to find a clean enough room and well…"

"Well what?" Kurt questioned.

"Not stumble into body parts and stuff…" Santana made a face, bracing herself for her friends' answer.

"What?" Kurt and Rachel shouted in unison.

"Listen, I know it's awful but…" Santana began.

"Santana!" The petite girl cut her off. "It's already the apocalypse, I could really do without a haunted place, especially here in New Orleans. Beside who says the materiel is clean enough to be used after all this time?"

"I didn't know you believed in voodoo shit." The taller woman exclaimed.

The diva rolled her eyes. "If I remember correctly, you're the one who crafted a voodoo doll of me in high school."

"Exactly, and you're still healthy and alive, so that's just bullshit."

The brunette bit her lips. "Isn't there a better option?"

"We haven't find any ambulances around, at least not one that wasn't too risky to reach. We don't know the city and we can't keep driving around the block like this. It's not the best option, but that's the only one we have so far."

Rachel nodded before turning around and looking at Quinn's unconscious form then at her best friend. "Kurt? "

"It's not like we have the luxury to be picky," The boy reasoned. "Quinn needs to be patched up now."

"Fine," Rachel looked at Santana. "Just go there. I just hope you're right."

"Me too…"

* * *

They drove for another 30 minutes before finding the old hospital. Quinn was still losing blood and looked even paler there before. No matter what they found inside the building, they needed to take care of her.

The place would be creepy any other day but during a zombie outbreak, it was downright spine-chilling. They moved inside the building carefully, using a flashlight they had found in the suburban house, just before everything turned bad…

The smell was nauseating and some hallways were falling to pieces, water on the floor and mold on the walls. They didn't have time to explore but it became clear pretty fast that they needed to go to the higher floors of the building to find a relatively clean room.

Kurt was carrying Quinn in his arms and was starting to struggle as they kept climbing the stairs to get higher. When Kurt couldn't feel his arms anymore, they stopped at the closest floor. Santana went inside the hallway first, looking for a gurney or a wheelchair to move Quinn as Kurt and Rachel stayed behind with the blonde. She found a wheelchair in the middle of a corridor; it looked like time had stopped there and she was half expecting the chair to move on its own. She shook her head, trying to not let her fears take over, Rachel and her stupid comment about haunted hospitals, what bull…

"San?" A voice suddenly called from behind her.

The tan girl jumped out of her skin when she heard her name and quickly turned around. She screamed. "What the fuck Rachel!? I almost had a heart attack!" The diva was standing a few steps away from her with a worried look on her face. She stared at her as she tried to calm her breathing.

"I'm sorry." Rachel approached her slowly and carefully reached out for the girl's hand. "You weren't coming back I got worried." She closed the gap between them and hugged her friend. "It's okay, it's just me."

Santana slowly relaxed into the embrace and when her heart beat was back to normal, she broke the embrace. "We should go."

They rushed back to the staircase with the chair and quickly rolled Quinn inside the hallway to find a room. After a few minutes, they found what looked like an exam room and Kurt laid the blonde on the examining table. It was a mess but it would have to do for now.

* * *

They started rummaging through the medical carts in the room that weren't knocked over and medical cabinets but all they could find were some way out of date aspirins and gloves.

"What do you need?" Kurt asked when he realised they would have to go on a treasure hunt to find equipment and every minutes counted. "Your dad is a doctor, you're clearly the one in charge here."

"It doesn't mean I can operate on someone." Santana ran her hand through her hair, her hands shaking at the sudden weight put on her shoulders. "I didn't go to med school, I studied creative art and communication! Those skills are fucking useless during the apocalypse. I mean, she can't die and especially not because of…" She stopped, realising the little knowledge she had about medicine thanks to her dad was way more than her two friends had but it was still not enough. She knew she would blame herself if she didn't try anything to save Quinn but she didn't know if she could live with the thought of not being able to save her. "I just remember stuff my dad said when we used to watch Grey's Anatomy together, it was our thing and he would always comment on procedure and stuff."

"We all studied things that are useless right now but you clearly know more than us. It's okay, we trust you and we'll be there to help." Kurt reassured.

"Quinn trusts you, she would want you to try." Rachel added, squeezing her friend's shoulder for support. "You're not alone so tell us what you need?"

Santana sighed. "I don't know, blood. I mean I don't know how much blood she lost and if it's enough to require a transfusion but we drove for a while and carried her here. On top of it, it doesn't look like she's waking up so..."

"Better safe than sorry I guess. I mean, at worst it can be some kind of blood doping thing, to give her a boost or whatever you want to call it, my dad told me about that. Anyway, Quinn and I are the same blood type, I can give mine and Rachel can assist you." The boy stated.

"What? I…" The diva was ready to argue.

"I know, you hate the sight of blood but we don't have a choice." Kurt insisted. "I'm gonna need you to pull yourself together long enough to do this."

"I…" The brunette looked at Quinn sadly and nodded. If Santana could push away her fears, so could she. She refused to let her friends down when they needed her. "I'll do it. What else do you need?"

"Syringes, needles, gauzes, a surgical tray even though I doubt it's still sterilized, antiseptic, towels" The tan girl enumerated. "Anything that could stop the bleeding and clearly nothing rusty because she could get an infection and…"

"Alright, so basically everything you see in doctors TV shows?" The petite girl summarized.

The raven-haired girl chuckled despite herself. "Yes, basically." She started walking toward the door. "Let's go I'll go left, you go right." She commanded before looking at Kurt. "You prepare Quinn, remove her shirt and cover her with the sheets in the cabinet." She waited for him to nod before exiting the room. She had no idea what they were doing but clearly they weren't turning back.

* * *

It took them longer than Santana would have liked to find what they needed but they were finally ready, well as ready as they could be. Rachel had found an anatomy book and another one with different surgical procedures and they were now open next to them so they could at least have an idea of well, what was what. Quinn's wound was on the left lower part of her stomach, as if she had moved at the last minute to avoid a full blow right in the middle of her guts.

Kurt helped them clean their hands and put their gloves on before settling to give his blood. He winced when Santana poked him three times to find his vein but soon relax when he saw the blood fill the tube.

Santana took a deep breath as she stepped in front of the table. "I'd like to say one more time that I have no idea what I'm doing."

"I'll try to guide you through it." Rachel reassured as she started reading the book in front of her. "Check how deep is the cut and if there is an exit wound."

"Okay, it's pretty deep. Help me pull her to the side so I can check her back." Santana commanded. They lifted the blonde's body and she carefully looked at the woman's back, not seeing any cuts or blood. "No, there's nothing."

"Okay good, it means it's not as deep as we thought." The diva glanced at the book. "Now you need to check that there isn't anything in the wound and that the knife didn't puncture her lungs, slice some organs or cause some internal bleeding. We're nowhere near the lungs or any vital organs so we're safe on that side."

"What?" The tan girl looked at her friend in panic. "How do I know? I'm not gonna slice her open to check. We're not fucking sociopaths trying to experiment surgical shit, we need to keep it simple."

The brunette frowned. "I… We can't just close her like that if something is bleeding."

"What do you want me to do exactly if something is bleeding? We're not playing Operation here!"

"I don't know. Wait…" The petite girl kept reading. "A tender stomach can indicate internal bleeding. So maybe if you feel a knot or some tension."

Santana palpated Quinn's stomach unsure. "I… I don't know, I don't think there's anything particular."

Rachel was trying to avoid looking at the hole inside Quinn's stomach for fear of puking but she also wanted to help Santana so she glanced at the stomach briefly before looking at her friend. "Are you sure?"

"I don't know…"

"What do you mean you don't know, you feel something or you don't?" The younger woman crinkled her nose.

"Exactly what I meant, for the hundredth time, I'm not a fucking doctor," The raven-haired girl snapped. "I don't know how the fuck Quinn's organs are supposed to look like in a normal state, I don't know how her stomach is supposed to feel on regular basis, I. don't. know."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry." Rachel reached out and squeezed the girl's wrist. "Calm down, it's alright."

"It's alright Santana, do your best, okay?" Kurt tried to be supportive too.

Santana sighed. "Yeah…"

"Okay so, I guess we should just clean up the wound and close it." The diva stated. "They say you shouldn't close the wound when it's opened for too long because of bacteria and infection but if we have to leave this place in a hurry, it's not like we have a choice. There're a few drawings about how to do stitches."

Santana looked at Kurt who seemed pretty pale, well more than usual. "Are you okay?" She asked him.

"I…" The boy hesitated, as if ready to lie but he decided otherwise when Santana arched her eyebrow. "I'm starting to feel dizzy. I don't want to pressure you but all we can do now is stitch Quinn up and hope for the best."

The tan girl nodded and asked Rachel to give her the needle and the surgical thread. She studied the drawing the diva was showing her and took another deep breath. She focused on doing the stitches correctly, looking at Quinn's face for any type of reaction but the woman was really out.

"Is it supposed to look like that?" The petite girl suddenly questioned, pointed at a darker red spot.

The raven-haired girl frowned, glancing at Rachel then at the wound. "I don't know." She grabbed a little scalpel and poked the spot, instantly regretting it when blood started spluttering. "Oh shit."

"Oh my god, oh my god…" Rachel's eyes went wide and she quickly put her hand in front of her mouth as if she was trying not to vomit. "I don't feel good."

Santana hastily put gauzes where the blood was coming from, trying to apply pressure to stop the bleeding. "Rachel, help me."

"I… I…" The younger woman was staring blankly at all the blood on Quinn's stomach.

"Rachel, do something!" The taller girl was glad they had decided to take Kurt's blood because she did something that made Quinn lose blood more than she should and she didn't even know where it was coming from.

"Mhh," The diva's head was spinning, her vision slowly becoming blurry.

"Berry!" Santana kept one hand on Quinn's wound and grabbed Rachel's chin with the other, forcing her to make eye contact. "Breath, in and out okay. I need you to stay focus right now."

The petite girl blinked a few times. "Yes." She took a few deep breaths, focusing on Santana's eyes.

"Rachel honey, focus, I need you." The raven-haired girl was almost pleading. She knew Kurt shouldn't move or he would probably pass out too and Rachel was her only possibility.

The brunette seemed to snap out of her daze at the soft and reassuring words. She could see how Santana's eyes were pleading, almost needy, like the woman couldn't do it without her and she suddenly felt warm, and anchored. She needed Santana too, more than she had ever realised. She took another deep breath and nodded. "I'm here." She looked around and grabbed some gauze to help Santana stop the bleeding.

It took them another 15 minutes to stop the bleeding and stitch the wound but they were finally done. After Santana had removed the cannula in Kurt's arm, the boy quickly fell asleep from exhaustion. Quinn was still unconscious but she was still breathing so at least it was a good sign.

* * *

After their little 'operation', Santana had explored the hospital a bit more, trying to find antibiotics or anything that could be useful, even if the meds were out of date. Her dad had told her once that drug expiration dates could be extended to 184 months on some products.

Santana needed some time alone, she couldn't stay in the room and feel useless, so she searched different floors until she was too freaked out by the weird noises coming from everywhere to continue.

Since it was night time now, they knew it was best to settle in the room for the night. Besides, it would be too risky to move Quinn after her blood loss. With the little food they had, they wouldn't be able to stay long so Santana was already trying to come up with their next course of action, debating with Rachel on what was best until they fell asleep against each other in the corner of the room.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

 **A/N: Thanks for the reviews**

* * *

The next day, Kurt and Quinn were in no shape to travel so they decided to stay at the hospital for another day. Rachel and Santana spent the day exploring the streets to find another car since they were practically out of gas and the back seat of their vehicle was covered in blood. It was just better to just find a new one.

Luckily, they didn't run into any zombies and were able to find a small SUV with the key still in the ignition. They used the rest of the day to look around the hospital floors for supplies. They were happy to find a few maps of the city which helped them plan their new trip.

They had pinpointed a few places they could go, isolated houses and old farms where they would be away from the hordes of zombies downtown and also, away from humans, who had become as evil as zombies as soon as the world turned bad.

In the morning of their third day there, Quinn had woken up long enough to drink before passing out again and Kurt was feeling better. They were almost out of food so it meant they had to leave. They gathered all their belongings and made their way to the car, quickly driving away toward their next location.

* * *

20 minutes after they left the hospital, Santana spotted an ambulance. The woman scanned the road, there were only two zombies around it which meant they could manage to get rid of them and grab some medical supplies inside the vehicle. She asked Rachel to move behind the wheel and got out of the car, hatchet in hand despite Kurt telling her to wait for him.

As soon as Santana's foot touched the asphalt, she ran toward the first zombie, smashing the hatchet in his head. It fell to the ground and Santana hurried to remove the weapon from his skull when she noticed the other zombie rushing toward her. She pulled it out just in time to hit it in the stomach. The zombie didn't really seem affected so she kicked him backward before aiming at his head and crashing his skull with the hatchet, blood splashing on her clothes. She ignored it and rushed inside the ambulance. She spotted a bag and opened it. It was full of gauzes, band aids and other supplies, even some morphine. She smiled in victory before exiting the ambulance. She practically jumped into the passenger's seat and ordered Rachel to drive.

* * *

They drove for almost 45 minutes until they found a house that was far enough out of the city. The house looked empty but it was better to check. Santana and Kurt made sure no one was inside before the boy carried Quinn inside with Rachel in tow.

Kurt settled Quinn on an old couch that had for sure seen better days. The blonde was awake but in pain, drifting in and out. Santana gave her some morphine before the rest of them moved to search the house.

Santana was looking around the kitchen when Kurt came up behind her. "Good job on getting the morphine."

The tan girl shrugged. "I figured Q needed it. She got axed pretty deep, that shit fucking hurt."

"You know for someone with such a sharp tongue, you also have a good heart." The boy teased.

"Please," The raven-haired girl scoffed. "Don't go all sappy on me, Lady lips."

"There's nothing edible in this house. I'm not really surprised since this place is torn apart and looks abandoned for quite a while now." Rachel stated as she joined them in the kitchen. "What do we do? We need food, Quinn can't take the medicine on an empty stomach."

"No shit Sherlock!" Santana rolled her eyes.

"I'm serious Santana. We have to find food." The diva insisted.

"Geez, you're so bossy. I know, alright." The taller girl growled. "Kurt and I will look for food, you stay here with Quinn."

"What? But it's dangerous out there." The girl said. "You can't just go out without a plan."

Kurt rolled his eyes as he walked past the duo, deciding to join Quinn instead who was tiredly watching the scene through the holes in the walls.

"You said it yourself, we need food so I'm going to find something we can eat." Santana pointed out.

The brunette crossed her arms almost petulantly. "I don't want you to go out there alone! And what if someone comes here while you're gone."

"I won't be alone, Kurt will be with me and we won't be long, I doubt anyone will come here."

"It's still dangerous!" The petite girl stomped her foot.

Santana frowned. "Did you just stomped your foot?"

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

"No, I didn't."

"Oh my god, you two are worse than an old married couple." Kurt exclaimed. "Why don't we just all go and look for food and a house that hasn't been abandoned like a decade ago?"

"FINE." "FINE!" They both said at the same time.

Kurt just sighed and looked at Quinn. "Sometimes I wish they would just kiss and make up."

Quinn chuckled wearily. "They're so stubborn that they're oblivious to their feelings for each other." Her voice was hoarse and weak.

"Yeah…" The boy smiled at her. "How do you feel?"

"Like shit but the morphine is slowly kicking in so I guess I'll be out soon…" The blonde answered. "Though right now, I'm pretty sure I'm high as a kite."

Kurt laughed. "I'm almost jealous."

"Okay bitches, let's go," Santana shouted. "Berry, I'm driving!" She added after a pause.

The boy sighed tiredly, standing up and carefully carrying Quinn back to the car.

* * *

After an hour, they finally found the small little town they had marked on their map. They drove around it, noticing a convenience store on the corner and some other stores that they could visit later on to find supplies, at least if there was anything left. It had been a little more than a week now since the outbreak started but the town looked like it had been through a civil war a decade ago and never recovered since.

They spotted a house at the end of a small street, it was Second Empire two story house that seemed empty. It was standing on a little hill and surrounded by fence, which was perfect to protect them from the few zombies they had seen wandering the streets and also keep an eye on everything. After a quick talk, Kurt and Santana decided to go check if it was secure before they could settle in, while Rachel and Quinn waited in the car, ready to drive away if something happened.

Kurt and Santana jumped over the fence and carefully made their way inside. Santana had her gun stuck in her belt but she didn't want to use it except if it was a real life and death situation. She held her hatchet tightly, leaning against the wall of the front porch as Kurt knocked on the door with the tip of his crowbar. When they didn't get any answer, the boy grabbed the knob and turned it, the door slowly opening with a creaking sound.

Kurt raised an eyebrow and whispered. "It's open. Is it a good sign or a bad sign?"

"Let's figure it out!" Santana answered as she stepped inside. The foyer was empty and silent but it didn't mean anything. She motioned for Kurt to go right and check the kitchen as she went left, walking silently further. When she reached the living room, she heard a growl behind her and froze. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her shaking hands as she turned around slowly. In front of her was standing an almost 6'4 foot tall man, probably the owner of the house according to the pictures hanging on the wall.

The raven-haired girl lifted her hatchet, ready to strike as soon as he would move but when he took a step forward, she let out a small scream that sounded so foreign she could barely believe it was coming from her.

"San?" Kurt called from the kitchen.

Santana heard her friend walk until he let out a small scream of his own followed by dishes slamming on the floor.

"We're not alone!" Kurt shouted from the other room. "There's a zombie here."

"Here too!" Santana managed to say just before the zombie knocked her down on the ground. She yelped in pain but quickly rolled to the side before he could grab her. She stood up and hit the zombie in the guts with her hatchet, which didn't seem to bother him at all. She tore the weapon out but she wasn't quick enough to step back and the zombie violently grabbed her arm. Her eyes went wide and she started panicking as she saw the zombie open his mouth and bring her arm closer. She gathered her strengths, pulling as hard as she could on her arm to free it. The dead man let go but with the forcefulness of the movement, she stumbled backward, tripping on the rug and falling on the floor, her head hitting the corner of the coffee table. Her vision suddenly became blurry, and she couldn't seem to be able to move. She was fighting to keep her eyes opened when she heard Rachel scream her name.

Rachel ran as if she was guided by fear and rage. She grabbed the fire iron next to fire place and without thinking, she slammed it again and again into the zombie's skull, continuing long after he was lying motionless on the floor.

"Rachel, that's enough." The taller woman said gently, lifting herself up a bit to lean her back against the couch. But the diva kept hitting him. "Rachel! That's enough! He's really dead." She repeated more forcefully.

The brunette stopped, breathing heavily as she stared at the body on the floor, eyes filled with tears. "I…"

"It's okay, it's over." The raven-haired woman reassured, slowly reaching to touch the woman's knee from her spot on the floor. She looked at diva for a moment before asking. "What are you doing here?" She had asked the girl to stay away no matter what but as usual Rachel hadn't listen, not that she wasn't grateful for once because she wasn't sure she would have make it. "Rachel?" She called when the woman didn't answer. She tried to stand but hissed in pain, which seemed to wake up the brunette.

Rachel snapped out of her daze and helped Santana, gently lifting her to sit on the couch. "Are you okay?" Her voice was heavy and hoarse. "Your forehead is bleeding."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks." Santana smiled tiredly. "Why are you here?"

"I heard screaming and I just, I couldn't stay in the car." The petite girl explained.

"That's stupid, you could have been hurt." Despite her gratefulness, the last thing Santana wanted was for Rachel to die because of her. When the brunette smiled fondly at her, all she could do was avert her eyes.

"And you could have died." The diva brushed some hair away from the cut on Santana's forehead.

This time, the taller woman smiled until something clicked in her mind. "Wait, Kurt?" She stood up abruptly but fell back on the couch as the world started spinning. "Kurt? Are you okay?"

Kurt joined them after a few seconds of silence, his shirt covered in blood. "I'm fine, I'm fine."

Santana sighed in relief. "Thank god."

"We should finish checking the house, they might not be alone." The boy stated seriously. "Rachel go back in the car."

"What? No!" The petite girl frowned.

"He's right." The raven- haired woman nodded.

"But I can help!" The brunette argued.

"I know, that's why we need you behind the wheel. If there're more of them, we'll just have to leave." The older woman explained.

Rachel stared at Kurt, then at Santana. "Fine, but you better both stay alive or else…"

Santana smirked despite herself. "Or else what?" She raised an eyebrow.

The diva stomped her food. "Or else!"

"Alright," Santana chuckled. "Don't get your panties in a bunch. We'll meet you soon, now go."

The brunette nodded. "Be careful." She cupped Santana's cheek, locking eyes with her as if she wanted to give her a message, before stepping away and leaving the house.

Kurt and Santana found another zombie on the second floor. He looked like a teenager, probably the son of the couple they had killed. Once they were sure it was empty, they carried the bodies outside and let Quinn and Rachel settle inside.

There was some food in the cupboards, enough for a week or so, more if they rationed it. They didn't have electricity but they still had water. It wasn't the best but at least it was enough for them to stay and take a much needed rest.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

They had been living in the house for two weeks now. Quinn was doing better but she still needed morphine to go through the pain which would be a problem soon as they were running low. Santana's head wound was slowly turning into a scar, going from her right temple to the point of her eyebrow.

Since they were almost out of food, they knew they had to visit the convenience store they had seen the first day. After another argument about who should stay and who should go, Rachel and Quinn found themselves alone in the house, waiting for their friends to come back.

* * *

Kurt and Santana arrived at the abandoned store without too much trouble. However, when they entered the building, they quickly spotted a man rummaging through some shelves. Not wanting a repeat of their last encounter with humans, Santana approached quietly, motioning for Kurt to move on the other side so they could corner him. Once Kurt was close enough, Santana stepped up to the man who was so busy looking for something that he still hadn't realised they were there.

"Don't move." Kurt ordered.

The man's eyes widened but as he hurriedly turned around to leave, he was met by Santana's gun.

"Not so fast." The girl saw him reach for his knife so she stepped forward, putting the barrel of the gun against his forehead. She tutted him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." She reached out for the knife and took it.

The man raised his hands in surrender. "Please, I don't want trouble. I'm just looking for food."

"Are you alone?" The raven-haired woman questioned.

He nodded. "Yes."

"Don't lie because trust me, I know a lot of ways to hurt you without even drawing a drop of your blood so you better not fuck with me." Santana threatened. It was like being back in high school, playing the power game and scaring people with her HBIC glare.

The man trembled. "I swear, I'm alone."

"Good. If you behave you'll get out of here in one piece. Try something and I'll put a bullet between your eyes. Got it?" Santana warned. She wasn't planning on killing him, she wasn't a monster but she would do whatever it took to keep everyone safe, even if it meant taking someone's life. The man didn't try to attack them and didn't look like he was planning to so she couldn't use the self-defense excuse. No matter how dark the world had become, she refused to become evil and be gratuitously violent. She waited for the man's answer and when he nodded, she turned her attention toward her friend. "Kurt look for something to tie him up."

"What? No, you can't do that, please!" The man shouted.

Santana brutally grabbed him by the collar. "You better shut your trap, because so help me god if you catch any of these zombies' attention."

Kurt came back with a piece of small rope. It wasn't much and if the man struggled enough, he could set himself free but they didn't really have a choice. They put him in the corner, tied up to an old radiator.

They started looking around, filling their bags with whatever they could use or eat, while still keeping an eye on the man and the street outside.

* * *

After a moment, the man started rambling. "I'm not planning on staying here, you know? I heard about a safe place from a soldier who had deserted. He told me he was looking for an old military complex built during the cold war and abandoned since. He said some men in his platoon heard about people taking refuge there soon after it started and there were no zombies." He sighed. "So I'm trying to go there. I don't know, I think it's worth a try, after all, what do I have to lose? My life? It's not like I had one before this mess started, so I guess no one would miss me if I died." He shrugged.

Somehow taking pity on him, Santana asked. "Do you even know where it is or is it like the Atlantis?"

He nodded vigorously. "Somewhere in Texas."

The tan girl scoffed. "Seriously?"

"Texas isn't really a small state and it's not like you can travel easily. And why would a soldier tell you about that, isn't it like, top secret or something?" Kurt questioned, momentarily pausing his search to look at the man.

"We made a deal." The man explained. "I gave him food in exchange for information."

Santana snorted. "Well genius, I think you need to re-evaluate your business sense, you got scammed."

"Don't laugh," The man frowned. "I know it exists, I can feel it."

The raven-haired woman rolled her eyes. "Sure thing, buddy." She had been intrigued at first, but the more the man was talking, the more she thought he was a bit coocoo.

"I'm serious!" He exclaimed. "Somewhere close to Corpus Christi, on some kind of off the radar island."

"Listen to yourself, Corpus Christi?" Santana threw a can in her bag and turned around to look at him. "It literally means the body of the Christ, you don't find that weird? It's the food that you gave to your guy that inspired him all this bullshit."

"Yeah, it's a bit of stretch." Kurt agreed. "I mean with a dose of religious and divine beliefs, it makes it the perfect safe haven story after judgment day. I mean, those bio-terrorists played God with this virus…"

"You don't know anything…" He frowned before looking into nothingness. Silence settled for a while until he laughed. "I'll find it you'll see, I know it."

Santana sighed. "Okay, whack job, why don't you just shut up and keep having this conversation in your head, alright."

"I won't," The man shook his head. "I want to leave, let me leave." He started pulling on the rope to get his hands free.

"Hey," Santana marched toward him. "I told you to stay calm."

"I don't care." The man spat. "HELP, HELP!" He shouted.

The raven-haired girl angrily grabbed his face. "Shut up!"

"SOMEONE HELP ME!"

"Well you asked for it." The tan girl raised her gun and bashed his head with the butt, knocking him out. "Now, it's nap time for you."

"Jesus, must you be so violent." Kurt declared.

"Maybe you want to be have a little chat with the horde of zombies we saw earlier but I don't so I did what I had to." Santana stated, checking through the window to see if there was any movement outside.

"I know but perhaps a slap would have been enough." Kurt pointed out.

"Sorry princess, this is not kinder garden." Santana scanned the room to see if she needed anything else.

"Whatever, Satan." Kurt rolled his eyes. "I think we have everything. At least for this store."

"Do you want to go check another store?" Santana asked, zipping her bag.

Kurt nodded. "It wouldn't hurt. And if it's too risky, we can just come back later?"

"Okay."

"What are we gonna do with him?" Kurt nodded in direction of the unconscious man.

The tan girl sighed. "He can stay here, we'll deal with him later."

* * *

After rummaging another store to find supplies, Kurt and Santana noticed the horde of zombies at the corner of the street had started walking toward them. They hurried back to the first store.

"Where are we taking him?" Kurt questioned. "He's still out…"

"I thought about it and I have an idea." Santana said, cutting the rope around the man's wrists. "Remember the house with all the graffiti, when you come from the south?"

"Yeah…" Kurt frowned. "Wait, you want us to take him there? He's unconscious, he'll be dead in an hour."

"There's a ladder on the wall, we can just put him on the roof." The tan girl explained.

"And how do you plan on doing that exactly?" He asked incredulously.

"We carry him there and then you'll go on the roof and drag him with you. He's almost as tiny as Rachel, I'm sure we can manage." Santana said as if it was easy.

"I'm not really sure your girlfriend would agree."

"She's not my girlfriend!" Santana growled. "And you're lucky we're in a hurry because I would have left you here to roast for that comment."

"Whatever you say, darling, whatever you say." Kurt kneeled down and grabbed one of the man's arms, motioning for Santana to take the other.

"God, I hate you." The raven-haired woman muttered before grabbing the man and following Kurt toward the exit.

It wasn't easy but the two friends were able to settle the man on the roof of the old house. The horde of zombies was close and they needed to go back. They left a couple of cans and water next to the man so he wouldn't starve to death.

"Let's not tell Rachel we threatened someone and left him out there, I don't want a lecture on human rights." Santana declared as she climbed down the ladder.

"We did what was right and it's not like we killed him." Kurt answered. "Don't worry, we'll keep this detail between us. We'll just tell them he ran away."

Once they were both back on the ground, they quickly rushed back to their house.

* * *

Meanwhile in the house, Rachel was changing the dressing on Quinn's wound in the living room.

The diva sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time, making the blonde roll her eyes. "Relax, Rachel, they'll be fine."

"How do you know, Quinn? It's bad out there, I mean, it's literally hell, the dead are alive and walking the streets because some… some crazy people thought we had to start over and not all of us deserved a second chance. So no, I can't relax because for all we know they could be eaten by those rabid people or just dead somewhere."

"God, I'm in no state to handle your rant so tune down the dramatic will you." The blonde said.

"The situation is dramatic, it's the apocalypse!" The brunette cried.

"I know, that's not…" Quinn sighed. "What I meant is that, they're both tough cookies, they'll…" Before she could finish they heard a weird noise coming from the front door.

"It doesn't sound like San or Kurt." The petite girl frowned and stood up. "I should check that."

The blonde shook her head. "No, that could be dangerous."

"They left me here to take care of you, I won't let you get hurt again. I can defend us." Rachel slowly walked toward the fire place to grab the fire iron she had used previously.

"No one said you couldn't but…"

"Wait here." The diva declared, walking toward the hallway.

"Rachel get back here." Quinn whispered-yelled but the brunette was already out of the room. She sighed. "Shit, Santana will kill me if Rachel gets hurt." She slowly got up, reaching for her wound as she hissed in pain. "Fuck." She grabbed the little shovel next to the fire place and exited the room. "God, I'm surrounded by dimwits."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

 **A/N: Comments make my day =)**

* * *

Rachel was walking toward the foyer trying not to make any sound. When she heard footsteps getting closer, she braced herself and raised the iron. As soon as the approaching figure was close enough, she closed her eyes and swung her weapon. She missed her target by an inch, hitting the wall and leaving a dent in it.

The diva heard a shriek and quickly opened her eyes. They widened when she realized who was standing in front of her. "Oh my god, Santana!"

Santana's shocked face quickly turned angry. "What the hell, Berry?!" She cried. "You almost ended me! If you weren't such a bad swinger my face would be gone by now."

"Santana, I'm so sorry." The brunette quickly apologized. "I didn't hear any voices so I thought you were one of these zombies."

"Well shit," Santana breathed out, still a bit shaken. "I come bearing food and all I get is a face full of iron."

"I didn't hit you," Rachel rolled her eyes. "And you should have announced yourself."

At her turn, Santana rolled her eyes. "And what was I supposed to say exactly?"

"Honey I'm home," Kurt said chuckling as he walked pass the brunette.

"Shut up!" The raven-haired girl snapped. She pushed the bag full of food into Rachel's hands before following him toward the living-room. She frowned when she saw Quinn standing in front of her. "Q, what are you doing up? You need to lay down."

"Your girlfriend was running around with an iron and god knows how many things can go wrong with that so I followed her to make sure she was okay." The blonde girl explained as she slowly walked back to the couch.

"She's not my girlfriend." The tan girl cried. "She almost killed me."

"Sure, Jan." Quinn said in a sarcastic tone.

"Oh my god." Santana exclaimed frustrated. "Kurt and you should really shut up because the next one who brings that up I'll ends him myself got it."

Quinn and Kurt rolled her eyes in response.

* * *

Later, they settled in the living room to eat dinner. They had been happy to find an old gas stove in the basement that allowed them to at least cook and eat warm food. The room was lit with a few candles, not too many so as to bring attention from outside but enough to see what was on your plate.

After a while, Kurt started recounting what the crazy man at the store had told them about Corpus Christi. Quinn agreed he was probably a lunatic but Rachel seemed to think it might have some truth behind it.

The diva was barely eating, pushing around the pieces of meat that were in her plate. When Santana realized what the woman was doing, she sighed and grabbed her plate, shoving the meat onto hers and switching it for her vegetable mix.

"Santana you don't have to," The brunette argued, trying to take her plate back. "You need strength, you were out today and…"

"I don't care I like meat," Santana cut her off, putting a mouthful of her food in her mouth to prove her point. "You clearly can't look at it without making a face so eat my vegetables."

"But you…" The petite girl tried again.

"Seriously?" The raven-haired woman growled. "Do you have to argue about everything all the time? Can't you just enjoy it and say thanks? Because seriously it's exhausting and besides, we might not be able to respect your vegan diet anymore so you should enjoy it while you still can." She was tired and irritated about the situation and she just wanted to relax. She forked some food and ate it. She sighed, she would kill for some breadsticks right now.

Rachel swallowed loudly, pushing her plate away. "I'm not really hungry anymore, excuse me..." She stood up and hastily left the room.

"Can't you just be nice?" Kurt said sternly.

Santana frowned. "I was nice, I offered some of my food."

"Before telling her to shut up and eat." Quinn said.

"I said ..." Santana sighed again before rolling her eyes. "Argh. That woman is so sensitive about everything." She emptied the rest of her plate before standing up. She grabbed Rachel's plate and went upstairs to find the girl.

"Do you think they'll kiss and make up this time?" Kurt asked as he took a bite of his food.

"Knowing thpse two, they'll wait until the apocalypse passes." Quinn rolled her eyes.

* * *

Santana reached the top of the stairs and quickly opened a few doors to find her friend. After a while, she found Rachel in the little play room, sitting on a bean bag. She stepped in carefully and sat on the other bean bag.

"You can be mad at me if you want but it's not an excuse to skip dinner. You have to eat."

"I told you, I'm not hungry." Rachel answered.

"You barely touched your plate, so eat." Santana insisted.

The diva sighed. "Santana if you came here to finish what you started downstairs you can go."

Santana sighed too. "Listen, you know how bitchy I get when I'm tired. It's like, when we first moved in together and you kept talking to me in the morning before I got my coffee and then you learned to just wait for me to at least have 3 gulps of it to start rambling."

The brunette chuckled despite herself. "I know deep down you're trying to look after me but I want to look after you too, that's why I insisted. I don't do it to purposely annoy you."

"I know, I'm sorry okay?" The taller girl apologized before handing the plate. "Can you please eat?"

"I…."

Santana raised an eyebrow pointedly. "I said please."

"Fine!" The petite girl caved, grabbing the plate and eating her food as Santana wordlessly looked at her.

* * *

The four friends went to their rooms after that, except for Santana who was keeping watch for the first part of the night. Somehow, the woman had fallen asleep and woke up with a start when she heard the sound of a piano. She stood up abruptly from the couch, freaking out a bit. She listened to the noise and she wasn't dreaming, there was some soft music playing from a room downstairs. She grabbed the hatchet and rushed upstairs to ask Kurt to watch the perimeter while she followed the sound. The music was coming from a room downstairs which was weird since everyone was supposed to be asleep and as far as she knew, zombies couldn't play an instrument. She opened the room she hadn't stepped foot in since they arrived and realized there was a piano there, Rachel sitting behind it.

"Geez Berry," Santana exclaimed, quickly catching Rachel's attention as the woman stopped playing. "I thought there was a ghost playing an old tune."

"Did I wake everyone?" Rachel crinkled her nose. "I thought the room was soundproof, I'm sorry."

"It's cool," Santana shrugged. "I kind of fell asleep when I shouldn't have so… I guess today was more exhausting than I thought." She sat down beside the diva on the piano bench. "What are you doing here?" She yawned.

"I couldn't sleep..."

"What's in that crazy mind of yours?" The tan girl asked playfully.

"A lot." Rachel answered with a sad smile. "I keep thinking about the friends we lost and what we're going to do after that and I don't do well with day to day planning, I need to think ahead but I can't do that here, I don't know what to hold on to."

"It's hard for everyone…" Santana stated with a sigh. "But we have to hold on to each other, as long as we stick together, we have a reason to keep moving on."

"But what if I lose you?" Rachel asked, wariness filling her eyes.

"Rach, you're not gonna lose me, I'm a badass bitch." Santana smirked.

The diva frowned. "I'm serious, you're only human. You can't promise me that, everything can happen in the blink of an eye. Look at what happened to Quinn and Puck."

The raven-haired girl sighed again. "We knew the risks and now we've learned from our mistakes, we're more careful. Puck, he…." She took a deep breath to rein in her emotions. "He sacrificed himself so we could be here now and I promised him to keep everyone safe and I will so…"

"I…" The brunette clapped her mouth shut as if she wasn't sure she should share something.

Santana raised her eyebrow questioningly. "Yes?"

"Can I be honest with you?" The diva looked hesitant, biting her lip nervously.

"You always are but sure shoot," The taller girl nodded before half smiling. "Well not literally, 'cause you know, I'm only human and shit…"

"At the suburb, when those people attacked us, you… You stayed behind and after a while, you came back alone without Puck. For a minute I thought…" Rachel ran her hand through her hair. "I thought you left him behind so you could escape and I feel guilty ever since."

"Oh wow. That's…" Santana recoiled from the statement. It was the last thing she had expected to hear and she had to admit it stung. "I mean, do you think so little of me?"

"Of course not," The diva cried. "We are friends and we were roommates for so long and I should've known you better. I should've trusted you would do the right thing. I was blinded by concern for everything, and to top it all, seeing Quinn injured did not help. I worried you got injured too until you came back."

"You were worried but still thought I abandoned him to save myself. Thank you for still seeing me like a ruthless bitch, Berry." The tan girl snapped.

"No," The brunette shook her head. "I don't think that at all and you're missing the point."

"Then what's your point?" Santana barked. "Because right now, except making me feel like shit for something I already feel guilty about, I don't see it. He asked me to leave, I refused several times. He begged me to just save myself and help all of you because he knew he wouldn't make it." Her voice broke before she fell silent. After a moment, she abruptly stood up. "You know what, I don't care, I'm done with this conversation."

"Well I'm not." Rachel grabbed the woman's wrist and pulled her back onto the bench.

"Rachel." Santana growled warningly.

"I was relieved." Rachel suddenly blurted out. "That was what I wanted to confess."

The taller woman sat back and looked at her friend with a frown. "What?"

"I feel guilty because I…" The petite girl took a deep breath. "For a moment, I was grateful that Puck was the one that got injured and not you." She stared at the piano keys as a tear escaped from her eyes. "I was glad my friend got injured instead of you! I'm such… a horrible person… Why would I think like that?"

"Rach…" Santana was at a loss for words. She didn't know what to say. She knew it was bad to think like that but somehow she understood. If the Grim reaper was asking you to choose between two people, asking you to choose who to save and who should die, even if it was hard, you would choose the one you love the most, it was human, except during the apocalypse, you couldn't choose. Maybe it was somehow better because you didn't have to carry the burden of your decision but it didn't change the fact that you would prefer to spend the rest of your doomed days with your old friends than with strangers, with your family more than acquaintances. They were all friends but they still had preferences, and again, they were just human, fallible, fragile, flawed…

"No, listen to me." Rachel practically pleaded, turning to face her friend and grabbing her hands to hold them in hers. "After everything that happened, I need to say this because we never know if we're going to see another day. I care about you Santana. For so long I just watched you and did nothing because I thought we had time. I shouldn't have taken things for granted, you, for granted." She paused. "When the break out happened, I was scared out of my mind to lose you before I got to tell you my feelings ... for you."

"Rachel, I care about you too." The raven-haired woman reassured.

"You do?" The diva sounded almost surprised at the confession. She knew there was a connection between them but it was something else to say it out loud.

"Of course I do."

The brunette frowned, unsure if the woman had understood what she was trying to convey. "But in a friendly way or in a 'I like like you way?'"

The tan girl chuckled. "What are we, 4th graders?

"Do you love me?" The petite girl asked bluntly, her eyes widening at her own boldness.

"I…I…" Santana didn't seem to be able to answer and she could see the expectation in the other woman's eyes. Instead of answering, she did what she thought would send the right message. She licked her lips and leaned in for a soft kiss.

Rachel's eyes glanced at Santana's lips, aware of what was about to happen. She felt her heart beat like a drum as she fluttered her eyes shut. Just when she felt Santana's breath on her lips, Kurt barged into the room.

"We need to get out, there's a horde of zombies heading towards here." Kurt said in panic.

"Shit." Santana swore, quickly moving away and turning around. "Gather the supplies, I'll start the car. Rachel go help Kurt."

"No. I'll go with you." Rachel disagreed, holding Santana's arm.

Santana stood up. "Rachel, do as I say, please." She squeezed the woman's hand before moving away and out of the room.

Kurt followed her. "The car is no use Santana, they're about to reach the front gate. It looks like there're a few holes in the fence." He ignored the weird tension between the women and continued. "Quinn said we have to go on foot, through the back door and into the woods. We could hide there until we find another house or until we can come back here." They heard a window shattering followed by some growling. "We need to go, now! Quinn is waiting in the back with our stuff." He led the way as Santana grabbed Rachel's hand and started running as fast as they could.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

 **A/N:** Sorry for the late update but I have to admit the lack of feedback didn't really help me write. However, since I don't want to let this story unfinished, I'm trying to wrap things up.

I am also pissed and hurt after what happened with the Supergirl cast at Comic con. I was writing for the Supercorp fandom for a while, I thought they were and still somehow, are the most beautiful pairing I have ever seen, no hard time, no constant fight to move forward, just two people who should have been ennemies but against all odds, ended up loving and supporting each other, free to just be... *sigh* I'm salty that they took the joy away from this when it had been my breath of fresh air for months, well since the marvellous Katie McGrath granted us with her presence. Now I don't feel like writing or shipping anything because almost everyone and everything turns out to be a disappointment...

Anyway, on a brighter note, for those who still read, I hope you'll enjoy this update.

* * *

Rachel and Santana had been running aimlessly through the forest for what seemed like hours and they were exhausted. They were trying to find Kurt and Quinn after being separated from them during their frantic running into the wood.

Rachel stopped running, trying to catch her breath. "I can't take another step or I'm going to pass out from exhaustion."

Santana shook her head, refusing to stop walking. "We need to find them."

"I know that." The diva grabbed her friend's arm and forced her to stop. "But if we continue like this it won't help anyone. We should rest until the sun rises and then try to find Kurt and Quinn once we can see more than a few feet ahead of us."

Santana sighed. "Fine. But as soon as the sun is up, we leave."

The petite girl sat down against a tree and put her backpack down. She opened it and grabbed her bottle of water. "Here, drink."

Santana refused with a wave of her hand. "I'm okay." She looked around to make sure there weren't any movements.

"Drink." Rachel repeated, not bothering with the girl's refusal. They had ran and walked for hours and would continue on soon enough, it was important to stay hydrated.

"Rachel." The tall girl growled.

"Santana." The brunette pushed the bottle into her friend's hand.

"Fine!" The raven-haired girl grabbed the bottle and twisted open the cap. "God, you find a way to be annoying even lost in the middle of nowhere."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "I'm just trying to look after you."

"I'm a grown ass woman, I don't need you to babysit me, thank you very much." Santana took a few gulps of water.

"You do." The diva interjected. "Because you're really good at making sure everyone is fine but you're doing such a poor job when it comes to yourself. I don't mind taking care of you when you can't." There was fondness in the girl's eyes as she talked.

Santana wanted to argue but she was too tired and she knew Rachel knew her too well to do so. Whether she liked it or not, they could read other like an open book and maybe it should have been the first sign that there was something more than friendship. And the look in Rachel's eyes meant it all… Instead of denying it, she scoffed. "Whatever." She sat next to her friend.

The brunette chuckled. "Get some rest, Santana."

"You go first, I'll keep watch and I'll wake you up in an hour." Santana answered.

Rachel frowned. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." The tan girl assured.

The petite girl started to lean to rest her head against Santana's shoulder but seemed to hesitate. The urgency of their departure had pushed away the thought of their almost kiss but now it was coming back in force. "Is this okay?"

"Wouldn't be the first time." Santana shrugged her shoulder that wasn't next to Rachel's head.

"I know but we haven't really talk since we left the house and we were about to…"

"Rachel," Santana interrupted. "Now is not the time, just rest."

Rachel pursed her lips, trying not to feel hurt by the words. She nodded curtly and pulled her bag closer to rest her head on it as she laid down on the other side of her friend.

The raven-haired girl frowned. "I know we ran for a while but I don't think I smell that bad that you have to pull away so much."

"You told me to rest, that's what I'm doing." The diva replied flatly.

Santana's frown deepened. "What? Seriously?"

"Yes."

"Is this because I told you it wasn't the right time to talk about feelings and shit?" Santana questioned.

"I don't think feelings and relationship are shit, Santana" The brunette answered, lifting her head from her bag to glare at the woman.

"And that's not what I said, Rachel." The tan girl mimicked in the same tone.

"You don't have to explain yourself." Rachel retorted almost coldly.

"Oh my god!" Santana groaned. After a moment of silence, she sighed, moving the bag and grabbing Rachel's shoulder to pull the girl against her. "I said it wasn't the time, no that we won't. We will talk about it, us, because that's what you do, talk about feelings and shit, even in the middle of the apocalypse." She smirked when the woman huffed at her words. "But not now, in the middle of the forest when we have no idea where Kurt and Quinn are. So can you keep the rainbow inside for a bit?"

The petite girl finally relaxed in the embrace. "I'll try."

Santana chuckled. "Guess that's the best I'll get from you. Now rest."

* * *

After an hour, Santana went to sleep as Rachel kept watch. The woman was on edge, tensing at every sound around her.

When the diva heard a noise that she was sure wasn't coming from the wind or the trees, she grabbed Santana's gun. She didn't think the kukri knife Kurt had found during their little 'shopping' trip would help a lot right now. She waited, listening to the noises as her heart beat faster. She didn't want to wake up Santana if it was nothing but when she heard growling a few minutes later, she quickly decided it was serious. "Santana, wake up."

Santana stirred. "Hmm…"

"Wake up, something is here." The diva urged.

Santana stood up abruptly, every sign of sleepiness gone. She scanned the area but couldn't see anything. "Where?"

The brunette stood up and gave the gun to her friend. "Over there." She raised her hand and pointed at the trees on the right side.

As if on cue, a bear appeared in front of them. It roared as it stood on its feet. Santana instinctively pushed Rachel behind her. "Hey buddy, we're not looking for trouble okay." She said calmly but firmly, lowering her gun slowly and putting it in her waistband.

"What are you doing?" Rachel whispered harshly. The animal didn't look infected but it didn't mean it wasn't dangerous.

"Talking helps. Stay calm and follow my lead." Santana answered before focusing back on the bear. "We don't want to fight." She took a step backward. "Or hurt you cubs or take your food or whatever that is that is bothering you, okay." She kept moving backward slowly. "I got it, it's your territory, we're leaving."

The bear growled again but didn't come closer. They kept walking backward, their eyes not leaving the animal. Rachel didn't notice the large root coming out of the ground and as her foot stepped back once again, she lost her balance and fell backward, unaware of the cliff behind her. In an attempt the stop her fall, she reached for Santana but she only succeeded in bringing the girl down into the pit with her.

The both fell, hitting a few branches that thankfully slowed them down until they hit the ground. Rachel's body kept rolling down the steep slope until she felt her head slam against a rock and everything went black.

* * *

Rachel woke up with a start, a scream escaping her lips.

"Hey, hey, breathe," Santana quickly sat next to her on the couch, stroking her arm in a reassuring manner. "You're safe, you're okay."

The diva was panting, her vision blurry as she tried to focus on her surroundings. "Where are we?" She blinked a few times as she realised she was on a couch, in a small room with a kitchenette.

"In a small hunting cabin." Santana reached for the bottle of water on the coffee table and gave it to her friend. "Drink."

"I…" The brunette took the bottle and sipped a bit of water. She cleared her throat. "How did we get here?"

"I had to drag your ass all the way here, that's how." Santana stood up and put another log in the wood stove.

"But the bear?" Rachel was confused. The last thing she remembered was moving away from the animal and then falling backward into a pit.

"It left us alone after we fell like ragdolls into the pit." The raven-haired woman explained, sitting back next to Rachel.

The diva sighed. "How long was I out?"

"Most of the day."

The petite girl looked through the small window in the side of the cabin and it looked like the sun was already setting. She ran her hand through her hair but instantly hissed in pain as she touched the right side of her head.

"Be careful, you have a nasty cut there." Santana gently pushed some hair away from the woman's face. "How are you feeling?"

Rachel smiled lightly at the kind gesture. "Like my head is about explode."

"Well, you hit that rock pretty hard." The taller woman patted Rachel's knee lightly before standing up. "I'm gonna warm us a can so we can eat and then we should get some rest."

"What are we going to do next?"

"I'd like to go back in the forest to see if we can find Kurt and Quinn, maybe they found a cabin like us." Santana stated.

"What? That's dangerous!" The brunette exclaimed. "What if we get attacked by wild animals again?"

"We'll just have to be careful but I'm not leaving until I'm sure I searched every corner of that damn forest for them." Santana declared as she grabbed a can and put it on the top of the wood stove.

The diva bit a lip. She was worried about her friends and she hoped to god they were still alive, but if they weren't and it was just Santana and her now, what would they do? "And if we can't find them?" It hurt to even say it out loud but she had to know if Santana had a plan or not.

Santana sighed wearily. "I don't know, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

Once the food was hot, the women ate in relative silence before deciding to call it a night. Santana wanted to leave early the next day to search for their friends and they needed all the sleep they could get.

* * *

The next day, the women wandered through the forest without any luck. Before night fall, they went back to the cabin to rest until the next morning. When they settled to eat dinner, Santana asked Rachel how she felt but the diva decided to lie and answer she was fine. She still had a headache but she didn't want to worry her friend more than she already was. Rachel could see her friend wasn't convinced but she dropped it after a while. As she rummaged through some cabinets, Rachel had found a map of the area. Sure it wasn't as vital as the cans of food Santana had gathered from different spots in the cabin but it could help them once they would have to leave the forest.

Soon another day arrived and the women were back in the forest to look for their friends. They walked most of the morning and a part of the afternoon, slowly losing hope of finding any sign of Kurt or Quinn when they spotted a piece of blue fabric stuck on a low branch of a tree. They quickly approached the tree and realised the cloth was the same colour as Kurt's shirt. Rachel sighed in relief, happy to see a trace of her friend's presence but rapidly deflated when she saw blood on it.

"Is this…" Rachel trailed off.

Santana grabbed the fabric and looked at it closer. "Yeah, it's blood."

"Do you think something attacked them?"

Santana sighed. "It's a possibility."

The brunette looked around her for another sign of their friends but couldn't see anything. She glanced at the sky, the sun was low now. It was better to walk back to the cabin and look again first thing in the morning. "It's late, we should go and tomorrow we'll look around this area again." After walking all day, the hammering in her head was loud and she really needed to lay down.

"What if they're just here somewhere?" Santana asked. "Maybe we could look some more."

"Then we'll find them tomorrow, but right now, we have to think about us."

The raven-haired woman scoffed. "That's the most selfish shit I heard you say in a while."

Rachel frowned. "I'm not being selfish, I'm being reasonable. I want to find them as much as you do but there will be no happy reunion if we get killed while looking for them."

Santana growled. "Fine! Let's go back to the cabin!"

"God, you're infuriating." The diva complained, holding her temples with her fingers in a desperate attempt to sooth her headache.

The taller woman opened her mouth to answer but stopped when she saw the pain on her friend's face. "Are you okay? I thought you said your headache was gone."

"Well I lied and your behaviour isn't helping." The brunette snapped despite herself.

"Dios mio…" Santana bit her tongue to not snap back at the woman. "As soon as we're back, you'll go lay down and take some pills."

"I'm fine, we should keep them for something else."

"Bullshit." Santana exclaimed. "You're not fine. It could be a concussion so you're going to rest and take some pills, end of discussion."

Rachel simply rolled her eyes and followed her friend wordlessly as they made their way back to the cabin.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

 **A/N; Thank you for your reviews, _I appreciate_**

* * *

The next day, Rachel woke up alone and confused. Santana wasn't in bed with her anymore and she couldn't hear any noise from the other room. She quickly rose from the bed and left the small room. Like she had guessed, the living area was empty. She started panicking, looking for any sign of Santana around the cabin, her backpack was gone but some of her stuff was still there. She rushed outside, thinking the girl might just be around the cabin but she couldn't see anything. She went back inside and was panicking more and more until she spotted a note on the coffee table. She frowned and moved closer to read it. It was Santana's writing. **_'I went back to yesterday's spot on my own, you needed the rest. Don't worry, I'll be back before the sun comes down. '_**

"Unbelievable," Rachel said out loud. "That woman is reckless."

Rachel tried to busy herself as she waited for Santana to come back. She was just finishing washing a shirt in a bucket of water when Santana barged in. Santana was panting and in tears. At the sight, all Rachel's anger disappeared, replaced by concerned and worry. The diva saw blood on Santana and her clothes and her eyes went wide. She rushed to her side. "Are you hurt?" She checked her friend's body for injury but couldn't see anything.

Santana shook her head. "Not mine." She breathed between sobs.

Rachel gently led her to the couch. "What happened?"

"I wanted…" Santana's voice cracked.

The brunette leaned back on the couch and pulled Santana with her. The taller woman snuggled against her side and Rachel slowly started to play with her hair. "It's okay sweetie, take your time."

After a while, Santana calmed downed and cleared her throat. "I went back to the spot where we found the rag. I wanted to see if there was something else, clothes, garbage, footsteps or any sign of their passage."

Rachel nodded. "And?"

"I found some traces on the ground," Santana continued. "Like something or someone had been dragged for a while. The lead stopped at some point so I started to wander around until I saw a cabin similar to ours."

"Was there any trace of them?" Rachel asked as she brushed Santana's hair in a soothing manner.

A whimper escaped Santana's lips. "Blood." She took a deep breath. "I found Kurt's shirt ripped on the floor and blood but no one…"

"If Kurt is hurt, it means they couldn't have gone far." The diva pointed out, trying to stay positive. "Or maybe they needed supplies and they'll come back to the cabin soon. We should keep looking."

"There was a lot of blood Rachel." Santana revealed, a sob getting caught in her throat. "If they needed medical supplies, only Quinn would have left and Kurt would be resting but the cabin was empty… So it can only mean one thing, Kurt's dead."

"You don't know that," The brunette exclaimed. "You haven't found his body, there's still hope."

Santana straightened her position, sitting at the far end of the couch. "If there's no body then it means he turned and that's why Quinn left. The door was opened, maybe he's wandering around the wood."

"We shouldn't jump to conclusions." Rachel insisted.

"And you should stop being naïve and hopeful," Santana snapped. "Look around Rachel, we're doomed, we're just delaying the inevitable."

"Then why did you save me? Why are you making sure we're safe? Why do we keep moving if there's just death at the end of the road?" The petite girl reasoned.

"Because…" Santana opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to come up with an answer. "I don't know."

"As long as we are together, there is still hope, even in the darkest time, there is hope and that's why we have to keep fighting. If we stop then these terrorists win. And maybe they're right, maybe not everyone deserves a second chance and some people will get one without even deserving it just because they were willing to do the unthinkable to survive." Rachel ignored the weird look Santana sent her way. She had to admit before the apocalypse, she would have never said such a thing, but facing death tended to change your perspective on things. "But I know one thing, after the struggles we had you and I, we deserve this chance, we deserve a safe haven and a peaceful end. I've never stopped fighting for what I think I deserve and I'm not going to stop now. And even if you run out of hope, I won't let you give up, I have enough hope for the both of us. We're in this together."

The raven-haired woman sighed. She didn't know what was going to happen in the future, if there was even one, but the only thing she knew what that as long as Rachel was alive and with her, she would keep going. "So what's your plan, oh wise one?"

Rachel stayed silent for a few minutes, thinking about a plan of action. "We should check the cabin together tomorrow to make sure they didn't come back. If we can't find anything, maybe we should visit the closest village we can find on the map. If they needed supplies, that's probably where they went."

Santana nodded. "And if we still can't find them?"

"I…" The diva sighed helplessly. "I don't know…" She sighed, thinking about their last dinner with her friends. "Wait, the last time we were all together we were talking about Corpus Christi."

"Texas." Santana scoffed. "Please that was just the pipe dream of a lunatic."

"Maybe, or maybe not." The brunette shrugged. "We won't know until we go there. Perhaps Quinn will think the same thing."

"Why? Are you sharing a brain with blondie now?" Santana snorted.

"At least I'm offering ideas." Rachel snapped. "But I'm all ears if you have a better one!"

"We can just find another house to stay until…"

"Until what?" Rachel cut her off. "The next attack? The next lack of supplies and food? Then we move to another town, rinse and repeat? We can't live like this…"

"Travelling to another state in the hope we find a safe place that might not even exist isn't a life either!" The raven-haired woman declared. "And if Quinn and Kurt are still alive and lost around here, we'll lose any chance of finding them again."

"Then we'll wait until we can't anymore and we'll go." The petite girl stated. "That's why I told you we should check the villages around here and it will give us the opportunity to gather what we need for the trip."

Santana sighed, running her hand through her hair. "I'll think about it… For now, we should focus on finding our friends."

"Alright, I'll fix us dinner, you should rest." Rachel stood up, squeezing her friend's shoulder before moving to the little kitchen.

While they ate, the women studied their map and circled the villages they wanted to check if they couldn't find any sign of their friends the next day. After dinner, they moved to the couch, both too deep in their own thoughts to talk.

* * *

After a while, Rachel remembered she had found some camomile tea in the cupboard and moved to make them a cup, thinking it would help them relax. As she handed Santana her cup, the woman smiled and chuckled. "What?" She asked as she sat back.

"The wound on your head, it's probably gonna scar." Santana nodded in direction of her friend's cut. "And it's above your eyebrow, like mine."

The diva frowned. "So?"

"Well, who needs matching tattoos when you have matching scars, right? It's more badass." Santana explained amused.

Rachel raised her eyebrow. "I didn't know you were thinking about us getting matching tattoos? You barely wanted to talk about an 'us' the last time I checked…"

"God…" The raven-haired woman groaned. She was just trying to lighten the mood. "You still can't take a joke, can you?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't know scar was something to rejoice about?" Rachel answered. "Besides, it's something I've always feared with my career."

Santana snorted. "Sorry to burst your bubble but I'm pretty sure none of us will have a career anytime soon."

The brunette smiled sadly. "I guess you're right…" She glanced at her friend's scar, replaying the woman's words. She had to admit it was a confession of some sort, behind the joke, Santana just reaffirmed the fact that they were something, even if she refused to name it. She smiled again. "But I have to say…" She trailed off, deciding to humour the woman for once.

Santana arched an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"That's pretty romantic of you to say." Rachel smiled cheekily.

"Oh god, you had to go there." The taller woman chuckled, shaking her head. "Of course you'd say some gay shit like that."

"Well in my defence, one of us has to stay optimistic and since you can't really buy me some nice jewellery as a token of your love, a scar will have to do." The diva said, exuberantly putting her hand on her heart.

"You're ridiculous!" Santana laughed. "Who said I was in love?"

The brunette tapped her temple with a wink. "I'm psychic, remember."

Santana burst out laughing and Rachel joined in before cuddling the woman, trying to enjoy the moment as long as she could.

* * *

The next morning, the women left early and went to the cabin. It was in the same state as Santana remembered and it was clear no one had set foot in it after she left the day before. Rachel had been pretty shaken by the amount of blood there but despite everything, she refused to give up on the hope that her friends were still alive or at least one of them.

They stayed in the cabin for a couple of days, searching around the forest in hopes of finding Kurt and Quinn. When they realised it was pointless, they resigned themselves to keep moving and go to Aeston, the closest village from their location. At least Rachel's headaches had subsided and it would be easier for her to travel.

It took them almost a day of walking to reach Aeston. The place looked deserted but they stayed alert anyway as they looked for a house to spend the night. It was too late to search the town and it would have to wait till the next day.

In the morning, the women ran into some zombies as they searched the few houses around theirs. The village was small and it was clear that the inhabitants either had left town or were just roaming dead inside their houses. There was no sign of their friends either.

They decided to gather all the supplies they could and after a few days, Rachel and Santana found a car and left to explore another town.

* * *

The two women did the same thing for almost three weeks, visiting a new town, gathering supplies and looking for their friends despite never finding any sign of them. Since the villages were small, they had never ran into a horde of zombies bigger than they could handle. It was a small comfort and they knew it wouldn't last but at least, they were still alive and had enough food to survive and keep moving.

Their car broke down on their way to the sixth and last town to check. If Santana didn't think life had an awful sense of humor before, she sure did now. They had at least a three hour walk to reach their destination and she hoped they would be there before nightfall, especially since it wasn't a small village of a hundred people but a small town of a couple thousand inhabitant, meaning more zombies to be wary about. They gathered their belongings and soon, they started walking.

They had been walking for almost 2 hours now and Santana had a bad feeling in her gut. It was just too quiet. She scanned the perimeter anxiously but couldn't see anything. They had decided to take a shortcut through a field but they were approaching an old barn and something wasn't right. Santana grabbed Rachel's elbow, forcing her to walk faster.

"What are you doing?" Rachel frowned. "I can walk on my own and if I'm not walking fast enough you should just say so instead…"

"Shhh." Santana cut her off.

"What's wrong with you?" Rachel's frown deepened.

"I have a bad feeling." The taller woman answered.

"And does it require you to manhandle me?" The diva questioned annoyed.

"Stop being a drama queen for a second and shut up." Santana whispered harshly.

Rachel glared at her but did as she was told. She knew Santana's gut feelings were almost always right and she didn't want to take a risk by answering the woman. It didn't mean she couldn't send dagger with her eyes.

Santana stopped dead in her tracks when she heard a growl. She looked around, quickly trying to find the source of it but she could only see tall grass. She grabbed her kukri knife and motioned for Rachel to take her gun. She took a few careful steps forward but stopped again when her eyes fell on a horde surrounding the barn. If any of the zombies noticed them, they were screwed.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

 **A/N: Comments make my day =)**

* * *

Rachel and Santana stood still for a moment, trying to find a way to move back discreetly. They heard another growl and when they turned around, they were met by a zombie. Santana tightened her hold on her kukri, ready to get rid of it but she wasn't quick enough and the zombie let out a snarl that alerted the other. "Shit!" Santana sliced its throat and grabbed Rachel's hand. "Run!"

"Where?" Rachel asked in panic as she followed her friend, slaloming around the field.

Santana looked around, they were surrounded. Their only chance was to reach the silo next to the barn but they had to lure the horde away from the building before going back there. "I'm going to lead them as far away as I can while you go on to the silo."

"What?" The brunette shouted. "No, I'm not leaving you."

"You're not leaving me. Once you're on top of it, use the firecracker in your bag and throw it as far as you can in the other direction to create a diversion so I can join you." Santana explained her plan.

"When did we find firecrackers?" The diva questioned.

"Rachel, not a good time!" The taller woman explained, still running around the field. "When I say go, run toward the silo and don't look back."

"San…"

"Just do as I say." Santana ordered. Suddenly she turned around, slamming her knife in the skull of the closest zombie. "Run!"

Rachel hesitated but Santana pushed her forward as she sliced another zombie's throat. The petite woman ran as fast as she could, dodging the zombies around her. Once she reached the base of the silo, she shot a couple of zombies, one of them almost biting her foot when she jumped on to the ladder. Out of breath, she climbed the ladder to the top. Once there, she looked around the field, trying to locate Santana. The woman was being followed by more zombies than before. When she saw Santana had climbed a tree, she kneeled down and quickly opened her backpack, looking for the firecracker her friend had told her about. She found it after a few seconds then proceeded to find a lighter. She grabbed it and stood up, scanning her surroundings to find the best direction to throw the firecracker. Once she found it, she lit it and waited a second before throwing it with all her strength.

Soon, the explosion echoed around them and a group of zombies ran toward it. Rachel turned to find Santana. The woman had jumped from the tree and was running in her direction, dodging the zombies that hadn't left the area. The brunette held her breath and only sighed in relief when Santana joined her on top of the silo. "Are you alright?"

"I think so…" Santana panted, dropping on the floor as she tried to catch her breath. "That was close."

"We can't stay here." Rachel stated, looking warily at the zombies on the ground.

"I know."

"So what do we do?" The brunette questioned.

"We have two choices," Santana started, looking around them. "Get rid of the zombies around and then run aimlessly hoping to find refuge somewhere or we settle inside the barn until things calm down. Seeing how it's gonna be dark soon, I'd rather not risk running around in the fields."

"But don't you think it's weird that they were banging at the barn walls?" Rachel asked. "Usually they only do that when there's someone alive inside. We don't really know how friendly these people are…"

Santana raised an eyebrow. "Since when are you the expert in the not so dead people anymore?"

"I just pay attention, Santana."

"Maybe it's just some cattle." Santana shrugged.

"We can't hear them." The petite girl pointed out.

The raven-haired woman snorted. "What are they supposed to do, scream for help?"

The diva rolled her eyes. "They would have been frightened by the noises and moo."

Santana chuckled "Of all the things that could come out of your mouth I would have never expected that."

Rachel huffed. "I'm serious Santana, we don't have time for jokes."

Santana sighed, slowly standing up. "Listen, I don't really want to go back down there right now so frankly, I'd rather face a couple of hillbillies if that's what's inside then fight these dead things."

The petite girl looked at the old barn. "How are we supposed to get in?" She squinted her eyes. "The only opening I see is on the roof."

"Then that's how we get in." Santana simply answered.

"And how do you want us to do that exactly?" Rachel arched an eyebrow.

"We're gonna jump." Santana replied as if it was obvious.

"Are you out of your mind?" The diva exclaimed. "It's at least a 5.5 feet jump and we can't even gather speed!"

"I wouldn't call it jumping, more like leaping."

The brunette glared at her. "You're not helping."

Santana rolled her eyes. "Just trust me, okay?"

"Okay…"

"I'll go first." The raven-haired girl declared. "Then it's your turn. I'll catch you, don't worry." She leaned forward and glanced at the ground before moving to the opposite side of the silo top.

Without thinking, Rachel grabbed the woman's elbow and tip-toed to kiss her cheek softly. "Be careful."

Santana smirked. "Aren't I always?"

The diva snorted. "I'm not sure you want me to answer that."

"Touché." Santana chuckled. "See you on the other side." She winked before running and leaping on the barn roof. She didn't really land but rather crashed on it, groaning in pain. "Fuck."

"Santana!" Rachel whisper-yelled, aware that she couldn't shout because of the zombie but still worried about her friend.

"I'm fine." Santana stood up carefully, feeling pain in her arm. She took a look at it and saw blood. She had definitely failed her smooth attempt at landing. She glanced at Rachel and saw the worry in her eyes. "It's nothing, don't worry. Now your turn."

Rachel stared at the roof in front of her anxiously. "I…"

"Rachel." Santana called softly. "It's gonna be okay." She smiled encouragingly.

The petite girl nodded before taking a few steps backward. She breathed deeply, trying to calm her beating heart before rushing forward and jumping. She landed in Santana's arms, the woman catching her swiftly. She started to smile but it quickly fell when she heard the floor beneath them crack. Before they knew it, they were crashing into the barn, luckily landing on a bale of hay.

When they stood up, they were met by four people, three men and a woman, their guns raised at them.

"We don't want trouble!" Rachel rushed to say.

"What do you want?" The woman asked coldly.

"We got surrounded by the horde out there." Santana explained calmly but with her hand hovering above her knife handle. "We just wanted a safe place for the night until those fuckers get bored and move away."

"They've been there for days, little lady, so I wouldn't get my hopes up." One of the men said.

"You can't stay here, we don't have food for you and with the noise you made, it could take days for them to leave." The taller man of the group added.

"We don't want your food." Rachel declared.

"And it didn't look like they were planning to leave anyway." Santana pointed out.

The woman glared at her. "Still, we…"

"Please," Rachel cut her off. "Just for tonight."

"And how are you planning on leaving tomorrow then if they're still outside." The taller man questioned.

Santana shrugged. "We'll figure something out."

Silence settled between them as the group seemed to have a wordless conversation. "Fine, just one night." The woman said. "And no underhand tricks, I'm keeping an eye on you."

Rachel smiled gratefully. "Thank you, we appreciate it."

"I'm Bette," The woman introduced herself. "And these guys are my brothers. Paul." She motioned at the smaller man. "John." She waved toward the taller man. "And the silent one here is George."

"Nice to meet you." Rachel nodded in hello. "I'm Rachel and this is Santana."

"Alright, I'm going to make you a little spot to sleep in the corner over there." Paul said, moving toward the corner of the floor.

"In the meantime, you can join us downstairs if you want to heat your food." Bette didn't wait for an answer and walked toward the ladder that lead to the stalls downstairs.

Rachel and Santana followed, making sure to survey the place in case they needed to flee, not that they would get far.

* * *

They ate in relative silence, each group studying the other. After a while, George who had stayed silent so far, asked. "Where are you from?"

"New York." Rachel answered. "What about you?"

"Houston." George replied.

"What are you doing here?" Santana questioned. "It's not like it's the safest place to hide."

Bette snorted. "As if you're doing better."

"At least we're not stuck in this shit joint for days waiting for a miracle." Santana sneered.

"This joint as you call it." Bette practically growled. "Is what keeping you safe from the horde right now, but if it's not up to your taste, you're free to leave."

Santana scoffed. "You made it pretty clear earlier that it's what we'll have to do tomorrow anyway."

"Santana." Rachel said in a warning tone. "Sorry, she's just cranky when she's tired, don't take it personally." She looked around, desperate for a change of subject when her eyes fell on a sidecar. "Oh, you have a sidecar, is it working?"

"It was there when we found the barn." Paul replied. "I fixed it but the four of us can't fit in it and it's noisy. With the horde around, we can't take the risk to use it right now."

"It looks old." Santana noted, looking at the rusty greenish bike.

"Yeah, it's an old Indian from the 30's, you could still start this thing in a century but you know" Paul shrugged. "Not the best vehicle to use in the middle of the apocalypse."

"I guess you're right…" Santana agreed. She stood up and offered a hand to help Rachel do the same. "We should try to get some rest now if we want to get out of your hair early tomorrow."

Rachel took her friend's hand and smiled, standing up. She turned toward the siblings. "Have a good night." She nodded before following Santana upstairs.

* * *

After settling in the haystack that was supposed to be their bed, Rachel insisted on cleaning the cut on Santana's arm.

Santana waited for her to be done before whispering, careful not to be heard by the others. "I don't really trust them, we should take turns to sleep. Keep your weapon close."

"Are you sure?" Rachel didn't think the siblings were a threat but she had to agree with Santana, better safe than sorry.

"Yes, now rest, I'll take the first watch." Santana smiled reassuringly.

The brunette kissed Santana's cheek tenderly before lying down, hoping her sleep wouldn't get interrupted.

* * *

Morning came without any incident. The only major problem was that the horde was still around the barn. It was smaller but still large enough that Rachel and Santana wouldn't be able to deal with it on their own.

"We can't leave, the barn is still surrounded." Santana stated when they joined the group of siblings.

"That's not my problem." Bette answered unemotionally.

"So what? You're just gonna send us there to die!" Santana barked.

Bette shrugged. "We had a deal."

"Fuck you with your deal!" Santana shouted.

Bette pulled out her gun and aimed at her. "Say that again."

Santana swiftly raised the gun that she had kept after her watch. "I said." She said slowly. "Fuck you with your deal."

"Come on guys, you don't need to do this." George jumped in.

"Please, help us," Rachel stepped closer. "Just long enough to make a diversion and then you won't see us again. Please…"

"Bette, we should help them." George said.

"I won't waste any bullets to help this bitch." Bette roared.

Santana shot daggers at the woman. "I wouldn't mind wasting one on you."

"Try me bitch," Bette moved her arm and aimed at Rachel. "I have a feeling your care more about her life than yours, if you want we can see who's faster and who dies first?" She smirked.

They were interrupted by a loud bang on the barn wall, followed by many more. It seemed like the shouting had caught the attention of the zombies that were now trying to get inside.

Everyone looked at each other in panic for a few seconds before they all grabbed their weapons. The three brothers rushed at the barn door, trying to barricade it with everything they could find. Suddenly, one of the zombies broke through the wooden wall and tried to grab them with his hand. Soon, another zombie was able to create another breach in the barn wall.

"We need to contain them or we're dead!" Bette shouted.

"We're trying!" John shouted back as he raised his hatchet and cut a zombie's hand.

Santana took a step backward, pulling Rachel with her. "We have to go or we'll die with them." She whispered.

Rachel frowned. "But we can't leave them here, they allowed us to stay for the night. We should help them."

"They were ready to throw us out, zombies or not. I know it sucks but our safety comes first." Santana stated.

"We're surrounded, how are we supposed to escape?" The diva questioned.

Santana quickly looked around for a solution until her eyes fell on the side-car. It was their ticket out of here but they still needed to find an exit. She kept scanning the barn and saw a side door, not far from the bike. It was perfect and they wouldn't need a diversion if the zombies were already busy trying to get in by the main door. The only problem would be to leave without anyone stopping them.

"Give us a hand instead of standing there!" Bette yelled at them.

"Go help them, I have a plan. As soon as I call your name, run and jump inside the side-car." The tan woman whispered. When she saw Rachel stare at her, she added. "Just trust me, go!"

"I'll cover the back door just in case…" Santana announced, not that anyone was paying attention.

Rachel joined the group of siblings and used her weapon to push the zombies away. In the meantime, Santana discreetly took their belongings and threw them in the vehicle before moving toward the back door. She glanced behind, making sure everyone was busy before quietly removing the piece of wood blocking the exit and opening the door. She poked her head out and checked outside for zombies. They all seemed to be gathered on the other side of the barn. She left the door ajar, hoping no zombie would try to get in and stepped next to the side-car. She looked at the bike, desperately trying to find a way to start it. "How the fuck does this shit work?" She mumbled to herself. She glanced at the siblings again. They clearly had their hands full, she should be able to figure this out without interruption. After a moment, she noticed a kick-starter, remembering seeing one on her dad's old bike. Starting it wouldn't be an easy task, she had seen her dad put his full weight on it a few times for the bike to finally start. She had never tried or even driven his bike since he never trusted her not to crash his pride and joy but she guessed there was a first time for everything. At least, with a side-car, the bike would stand on its own and they wouldn't have to worry about balance so much, or so she hoped.

Santana knew she would bring attention to herself as soon as the bike started and even before if she had to try several times so she had to be quick and ready to fight the others. For now, she was half hidden by a wooden beam but the noise was a giveaway. She placed her foot on the kick and pushed it hard but the side-car didn't start. She tried again, putting more strength into her movement but the result was the same. "Start you piece of shit!" She growled. She did the same thing again but this time, she practically jumped on the kick, using all her weight. The side-car started with a cough. Third time's a charm.

"What the fuck?" Bette turned around as soon as she heard the noise, letting her brothers handle the zombies.

Santana ignored her. "Rachel, now!"

Rachel stepped away from the main door and rushed toward the bike but she was stopped on her way by Bette who caught her arm.

"Let me go!" The diva pulled on her arm to set it free but the grip was strong.

"You bitches will steal our only vehicle over my dead body." Bette declared.

In a flash, Santana jumped off the bike and ran toward Bette. "That can be arranged." She exclaimed before punching her and grabbing Rachel's elbow to drag her toward the bike.

They jumped on the side-car and without second thought, Santana twisted the throttle and plowed into the door, quickly driving away from the barn.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

 **A/N: Comments make my day =)**

* * *

Rachel and Santana quickly realised the side-car wasn't the best vehicle to use after catching the attention of several zombies and almost crashing a few times.

They stopped at the first village they found, taking refuge in a small house surrounded by a fence.

Later that day, after rummaging through the house and making sure it was secure, the girls settled in the kitchen to eat dinner, if they could call it that. They ate in relative silence, until Rachel spoke. "We left them to die…"

Santana sighed. "The walls wouldn't have stood for much longer and we did what we had to in order to survive."

The diva opened and closed her mouth a few times, like she wanted to argue but decided otherwise. "What are we going to do now?"

"Same as usual," The taller woman answered. "Search the town for supplies, food, and a car."

"And then what?" The brunette questioned frustrated. "We barely made it out alive today, we can't keep moving aimlessly."

"Our aim is survival." The tan girl stated matter-of-factly.

Rachel pinched her lips. "It should be about more than that…"

Santana frowned. "In case you haven't noticed, our civilisation is dying. I can't really take us to an amusement park so we can forget about our shitty life right now."

"What about Corpus Christi?" The petite woman suggested. "What if there's no infection there and we can settle in a safe place?"

The former cheerleader bit the inside of her cheek as she shook her head. "You're still holding on to that pipe dream..."

"I'm tired Santana, I don't know how long I can keep doing this." Rachel's voice was hoarse with emotion. "Maybe I'm naïve to think such a place exists but I need hope, I need to believe that we're not fighting in vain, just trying to delay our inevitable death. There's no trace of Quinn or Kurt and it's just us now. We have nothing else to lose so why not go there and figure out if this safe haven exists?"

"And what if we go there and there's nothing?" The raven-haired girl arched an eyebrow.

The diva shrugged. "I don't know…"

Santana let out a painful sigh. "Fine, but it won't be an easy trip. We need to plan it, look for towns to stop in, refill the tank and spend the night, we need escape routes if something happens."

"Alright, we'll start tomorrow then." The brunette declared. "For now, we should get some rest."

Santana nodded. "Go ahead, I'll be right behind you."

* * *

The next day, Rachel and Santana went car hunting. It wasn't a big village and it looked like most of the inhabitants had left town so there wasn't a lot of vehicles. They still spotted a few houses with smoke coming out of the chimney and decided to stay away from them. They stopped a few times to check the stores but there was no food left, which wasn't a surprise if some people were still living in the area. It complicated their plan since they were already very low on food and would be forced to stop at the first town they came across to get fresh supplies.

As they reached the end of the village, Rachel was starting to lose hope of finding something else than the rusty car they had found at the beginning of the day when she heard Santana squeal in joy behind her. She turned around and saw her friend walk toward a side alley, right next to a slightly run-down house.

"San? Did you find something?" The diva asked as she joined the other woman.

"Yes, and let me tell you, god bless the rednecks!" Santana exclaimed, smiling at the yellow hummer in front of them.

"Santana! You don't even know who it belonged to."

The taller woman chuckled. "Probably the ones who owned this house." She nodded in direction of the decrepit building. "Their home looks like shit but they clearly put everything into their car. So yes, for once, the two of us can be grateful for their existence." She tried the car handle but the doors were locked. "Shit, that would have been too easy." She looked around and sighed. "I guess we have to check the house."

"You don't think it's weird that the car is still here?" The brunette asked unsure

"Maybe they had another car or maybe they died before they got a chance to leave town." Santana shrugged. "Who cares?! What matters now is to find the key." She circled the house, checking the windows to make sure no one was inside before walking toward the door. She knocked, out of habit more than anything and turned the knob. She motioned for Rachel to bring her the crowbar they had found in the house they were staying since Kurt had kept his. They were aware of their need of more ammo, weapons and food, but they had to take one thing at the time.

Rachel approached and handed her the tool. "Here."

"Thanks. Now take out your gun and be ready for whatever could be inside." Santana whispered.

The diva nodded before grabbing her gun and taking a step back to give her friend some space. She watched as Santana forced the door open and carefully stepped inside, crowbar in hand and ready to strike. She entered the house right after and stopped in the living room. In the corner that Santana couldn't see from the window, was a man slouched in an arm chair, dead for quite a while it seemed.

Santana relaxed slightly at the sight of the definitely dead man but tensed right back when she heard the click of claws on the floor. Her eyes went wide as she quickly turned around and was faced by an infected Doberman. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Rachel raise her gun. She jumped to the side just as the animal charged at her. As she touched the ground, she rolled to the side to see the dog run toward Rachel. "Shoot!"

Rachel's eyes widened at the surprise attack but quickly pulled herself together and shot at the dog without thinking. The bullet hit it and the animal fell to the floor. However, it didn't stay there for long.

The rabid animal stood and growled, moving toward Rachel. From her spot on the ground, Santana stumbled towards the coffee table, reaching at the magazines that were lying there and throwing them at the dog. When it turned around and surged toward her, the taller woman braced herself for a bite but just before it could reach her, Rachel shot it again. This time the animal stayed on the ground.

Santana let her body fall backward, sighing in relief. "Fuck…" She breathed out, trying to catch her breath. "I guess we know now why the car is still here, the keys were guarded by Cerberus."

"Are you okay?" The brunette asked concerned, kneeling down next to her friend.

"Yeah, yeah…" Santana stood up carefully. "We should look for the key and leave this place. I don't want to stay here longer than necessary."

After searching the house for a dozen minutes, they finally found the keys to the hummer. They quickly hopped into the car which thankfully started without a fuss and drove back to their house.

* * *

The next morning, Rachel and Santana went on a scavenger hunt for food and supplies, making sure they had all they needed for their trip to Corpus Christi.

When they were done planning their trip and packing what they needed, the two girls hit the road, hoping their journey wouldn't be too hard.

They were driving for a while, sticking to little roads when they started getting low on gas. A few miles down the road, they saw a gas station sign and drove in that direction. Unfortunately, the petrol pumps were dry. Since it was late, they decided to settle inside the gas station for the night.

After sharing a can of food, Rachel and Santana studied their map to the closest gas station from their position.

Later, Rachel settled in the corner to sleep while Santana kept watch. After tossing and turning for a long time, the diva sighed loudly. "I can't sleep." She said in a low voice.

Santana frowned. "What's wrong?"

The brunette snorted. "What isn't?"

"I didn't mean it like that… Wanna talk about it?" The raven-haired woman offered, sitting next to her friend.

"I keep thinking about Quinn and Kurt, the people we lost, our families…I'm wondering, who died, who's still alive and where they're hiding. Days are passing by and we have visited a lot of towns, without many survivors and no sign of government actions." Rachel sat up and leaned against the wall before continuing. "I think about it often but after the last few days, I'm asking myself, will any of us survive? Those terrorists wanted to start over, give humanity a blank slate but if there's no cure, we'll just slowly die so what was the point of all this? I don't understand…"

"I don't get it either…" The taller girl stayed silent for a moment. "Maybe most of us don't deserve to be saved…"

The petite girl shook her head. "That's not true." Silence settled again. "We still haven't talked about us…"

"Oh my god, Rachel." Santana growled. "It's the apocalypse, it's not like we're gonna go on dates, rent a U-haul, get married and have a couple of kids who will run around with a zombie dog on a leash."

"Everything happened a few months ago now and we could die tomorrow, or in a week, or even a month, who knows? If the days I have left are dwindling on me, I want to make the best of it." Rachel stated. "I'm not asking for a big proposal, but if I have to leave this earth, I'd like to do it knowing that you were mine, and that I was yours. I mean, if that's where you stand."

The former cheerleader sighed heavily, running her hand through her. She wanted to wait for them to be settled somewhere safe, maybe somewhere more permanent but she guessed the woman had a point and if she was honest with herself, she didn't want to die without kissing her at least once. Without a word, she leaned closer to Rachel and kissed her gently, not deepening the kiss as she tried to convey her feelings. She pulled away slightly, watching Rachel open her eyes slowly. She kissed the woman's nose before leaning back to her side. "There, is that clear enough? We can be apocalypse girlfriends or whatever."

The diva beamed at her. "I would like that very much."

Santana chuckled. "You're ridiculous."

"Does it mean I can kiss you whenever I want?" The brunette asked hopeful.

"Maybe not in the middle of the street where we could get murdered or bitten but yeah, that's pretty much the point." The raven-haired woman answered.

"Good." Rachel smiled before kissing Santana again. The two women kept kissing for a little while until the diva settled down to sleep again.

* * *

The next day, Santana found two jerrycans and a tube in a corner of the store and put them in the trunk for when they would find gas. They decided not to eat breakfast and just hit the road again.

On their way to the next town, they were met by a blocked road. There were several cars abandoned in the middle and even a tanker truck lying on its side. Santana scanned their surroundings to make sure there were no zombies in sight before exiting the car, gun in hand. "Get behind the wheel and be ready to leave if anything happens." She ordered before cautiously walking toward the trunk. They had two solutions, they could either try to siphon the cars to get gas, which would take forever or get it right from the source if the truck wasn't empty. The woman decided to take her chance on the latter and stopped in front of the hatch. She used a few luggage lying on the street to gain some height. Then she struggled for a while to open the hatch but finally managed to do it. She smiled happily when she saw there was still petrol at the far bottom, at least they had some luck for once. Unfortunately, it was a two person operation and she needed Rachel to slip inside and fill the jerrycans while she kept watch. She turned around and motioned for Rachel to join her with the jerrycans. When she explained the situation, Rachel was less than thrilled but after some coercing, the petite woman agreed to do it.

Santana gave Rachel a leg up, helping the woman to haul herself inside the hatch before handing her the gas cans. Everything went fine until they realised Rachel couldn't reach the hatch to get out and the diva started panicking.

"Don't panic, okay," The taller woman tried to reassure her. "I'm gonna get you out of there."

"Don't tell me not to panic, Santana!" Rachel shouted. "I'm stuck in a tank and I'm starting to feel dizzy from the gas vapours, I have every right to panic."

"Well it will only make it worse if you start hyperventilating." The older woman pointed out. "Let me check if there's a strap in the truck and I'll hoist you out with it." After looking around, and climbing the side of the vehicle, Santana found a strap in a box fixed to the side of the truck. She tied one extremity around her waist and threw the other inside the tank. She pulled out the jerrycans first before trying to get Rachel out. The brunette was almost at the hatch level when Santana heard growling. "Oh hell no."

"What?"

"Nothing, just hurry up!" The raven-haired woman urged.

"What's going on?" Rachel questioned in panic.

"There are zombies coming our way, we have to hurry." The taller woman explained

"What? Just get me out of here." The diva cried.

"I'm trying!" When she spotted a zombie from the corner of her eye, Santana pulled harder on the strap. Rachel gripped the corner of the hatch but struggled to get out and before she could get a good grip, she fall on top of Santana, sending them to the ground.

Santana howled in pain. "Fuck."

"Oh my god, they're coming." The brunette stood up, dragging Santana with her. She grabbed her jerrycan and rushed toward the hummer before stopping when she realised the other woman wasn't following. She turned around and saw Santana limping in her direction. She threw the jerrycan into the car and ran back to Santana, forcing her to lean on her as they hurried back to their car.

In a last attempt to slow the zombies down, Santana shot a few of them before stepping into the car. Rachel started the vehicle and started making a U-turn. Since they couldn't drive through the road block, they had to bypass it by taking a side road they had seen a mile up. Zombies slammed against the car and windows as the diva manoeuvred the vehicle.

"Hurry!" Santana shouted.

"I'm trying!" Rachel hissed, turning the wheel one last time before stepping on the gas pedal to put distance between them and the undead corpses. The woman didn't relax until they were on the dirt road and she couldn't see any zombies in her rear view mirror.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

 **A/n: Here's the new chapter. Comments make me smile =)**

* * *

Almost an hour later, Rachel and Santana had settled in a small house, in a town far enough from the hoard of zombies.

Santana was lying on the couch in the small living room while Rachel was looking at her foot. "It's all swollen, I think it's sprained…" The brunette stated.

"What? No, I'm sure it's nothing." The raven-haired woman tried to stand quickly but hissed in pain, falling back on the couch.

"Santana! It's not nothing, you need to rest your foot for a few days." The diva ordered.

"It's not like we have the time," Santana clenched her jaw. "We have things to do if we went to find your chimeric paradise."

"Well it's not like you have a choice, you can't really wander around town in that state." The petite girl insisted. "And it's not chimeric, I have a feeling it exists, I know it does."

The taller woman snorted. "Whatever you say, Nostradamus." She sighed. "We still need to check the town and make sure the area around the house is safe."

"I can do it." Rachel offered. "Besides, you probably need an ankle brace and some painkillers, I think I should go check the drug store we saw on our way here."

"Hell no," Santana exclaimed. "You're not going there alone." She sat up on the couch.

"We can't really wait for you to get better, you need painkillers and whatever could help right now not later." The petite girl grabbed a pillow and put it on the coffee table, helping Santana rest her foot on it.

"Then let's take the car and go together, I'll cover you." The former cheerleader argued.

"Santana it's a block away, I'll bring more attention to myself by using the car than just going on foot." Rachel reasoned.

"But it's too dangerous to go alone." Santana replied, not wanting to let the topic go, scared about what could happen to her girlfriend.

"And yet you have done it a few times," The brunette pointed out. "This time it's my turn to take care of it and of you."

The older woman shook her head. "It's different."

The diva frowned and put her hand on her hip. "And how, pray tell, is it different?"

"Because you're you…" Santana waved her hand in the woman's direction as if trying to make a point. "You're the peaceful one and shit."

"I killed zombies just like you." Rachel hissed, getting irritated by Santana's comments.

"I'm not saying you can't, I'm saying it was always when we were under attack or you were with someone, namely me, since it looks like we are the last ones standing." The raven-haired woman finished sadly, settling deeper into the cushion of the couch.

"I'll be careful I promise," The petite girl softened when she noticed the gloomy look on Santana's face. "And if I realize it's too dangerous, I'll turn around and come back."

"Rachel…"

"Please, San, let me do this." Rachel pleaded.

"Fine," Santana let out a long and painful sigh. "But please be careful, if I have to go there and save your ass, I'm gonna be pissed and kill you myself."

"You would miss me too much." The brunette winked with a cheeky smile. She glanced outside through the window. "I should go, night will fall soon." She made sure Santana was okay before packing what she needed. She kissed her girlfriend lovingly then left the house.

* * *

Rachel reached the drug store but not without a few scares. She stepped inside the store, handgun raised in front of her. She checked the main part of the place and starting filling her bags with some energy bars and the little food that was left. Once she was done, she made her way toward the pharmacy part. When the brunette moved closer to the counter, she heard a noise, like boxes falling from a shelf and she froze. She listened as she tightened her grip on her gun but she couldn't hear any growling or movement. She took a few steps forward and stood behind the counter. "I'm armed and I won't hesitate to shoot, so you better show yourself right now…" She declared in her most commanding voice. "I mean, unless you're dead and a zombie and can't understand a word I'm saying… In that case, it would be nice if you could just, stay wherever you are… And… why am I even… I mean…" She stopped when a little girl with dark hair, no more than 5, appeared in front of her. "I… Hey." Rachel quickly scanned her surroundings to see if her family was there and ready to attack. "Are you alone?" She asked gently, the little girl nodded in answer. "Where's your family?" The little girl simply shrugged. "Are you hurt or did someone bite you?" The diva continued her interrogation. The little girl shook her head no. "Okay, hum, just go sit on the chair next to the counter and let me make sure everything is clear."

Rachel waited for the little girl to be seated before making a tour around the few shelves of medicine. When she was sure no zombie or human would jump on her, she searched for a brace and all the meds that could be useful even though a lot of drawers were empty. Once she was done, she walked back to the little girl and kneeled down in front of her. "What's your name, sweetie?"

"Lena." The girl whispered.

"Hello, Lena, nice to meet you. My name is Rachel." The brunette smiled gently. "How old are you?" Lena showed four fingers. "You're four, you're a big girl." Rachel looked around once more, wondering why a child would be alone in the middle of a store. "Can you tell me where your parents are? Or the people that were with you before… well before." She raised a hand, waving at everything and nothing around her. "This."

"My aunt left to find food. Louis was supposed to stay with me but he said he didn't want to babysit and left." Lena answered.

"Okay when did they leave? Today? Yesterday? The day before?" The brunette questioned but the child just shrugged helplessly. She sighed, trying to think of another way to get information. "How many times did you see the sun rise?" Lena showed three fingers. "You were on your own for three days!" The diva exclaimed in shock. "Did you eat?"

"A little." Lena replied. "Is my aunt coming back?"

"I don't know, honey." Rachel was pained by the sadness on the child's face, she didn't want to make it worse but if the woman wasn't back after three days, it was pretty unlikely that she was still alive and that poor excuse of a man Louis had just left the girl to fend for herself without even a second thought. She sighed and grabbed a chocolate bar, handing it to the girl. "Eat." She stood up, needing to think about the situation but as soon as she took a step away, Lena reached out and stopped her.

"Don't leave me please." The raven-haired child begged, her green eyes shining with unshed tears.

"I'm not leaving, sweetie." Rachel assured, trying to calm the distressed girl with a soft smile. "I'm just making a last tour of the place so we can leave this place. Okay?" She waited for the little girl to nod before adding. "Now eat, I won't be long." The brunette searched the place a second time for anything that could be useful, particularly meds and went back to Lena. She didn't want to stay in the store for too long, night was falling and she didn't want to be outside when it got dark. She couldn't leave the girl alone, especially since there was close to zero chance that someone would come back and get her but she needed to make sure she wasn't infected before bringing her back to her house, even if she was sure Santana would yell at her for it. She kneeled down again in front of the child. "I need to check something before we leave, I won't hurt you." Rachel reached out but Lena backed away against her chair, whining. "It's okay, sweetie, I don't mean you any harm, I just want to check if you're hurt. May I?" She smiled, patiently waiting for the child's answer despite knowing they had to hurry back. The girl finally acquiesced and the brunette did a quick check up. Except for bruises and little cuts, Lena seemed okay, well as okay as a child could be in the middle of the apocalypse. "Okay, you're all good. We should go now." Rachel offered her hand for the girl to take.

"Where?" Lena held the woman's hand and grabbed her little bag. "We're not waiting for auntie?"

"We're going to, hum, my house, that I share with my gir… my good friend Santana." The diva explained. "And as for your aunt, we can come back tomorrow but Lena, she might…"

"I know…" Lena interrupted, in weirdly adult voice.

Rachel frowned. "You do?"

"Mom never came back too…" Lena replied, her eyes glistening with tears.

"I'm sorry." The brunette stopped at the door and checked the street, they were a few zombies wandering around so they needed to run. She couldn't just drag Lena with her, she had to carry her. "Okay." She removed her backpack and put it on the child's shoulders. "I'm going to give you this, it's very precious. I trust you to carry it for me and I'm going to give you a piggy back ride, okay?" Lena nodded and jumped on the diva's back. Rachel scanned her surrounding and discreetly made her way back to the house with the child.

* * *

When Rachel arrived, Santana bounced toward her. "What took you so long? I was starting to worry… What the f…" She stopped when she saw the little girl.

Rachel set the child down, putting their bags on the floor before smiling at Lena. "Lena, this is my friend, Santana." She looked at her girlfriend, trying to make her understand that she would explain the situation later. "Santana this is Lena, she's 4 but she is very brave."

Lena giggled. "Thank you." She looked at the Latina. "You're pretty."

Santana chuckled despite herself. "You're pretty too, little one." She glanced at Rachel, mouthing 'wtf' to which the diva answered 'later'.

"Lena, why don't you go wash up in the bathroom?" The brunette suggested. "There's a bucket of water there." She pointed at a door at the end of the hall.

The child nodded. "Okay."

Santana waited for the little girl to be out of sight to ask. "Rachel, what is going on? Why is there a child with us?"

"Not now," The diva grabbed her backpack and led Santana back to the couch. "I need to take care of your foot and I don't want her to hear us, please let's wait til after dinner.

"Because she's staying for dinner?!" The raven-haired woman frowned. "Where's her family?"

"Santana, please." The petite girl sighed, tiredly, gently forcing Santana to lay down and taking the brace and the pills from her bag.

Santana sighed. "Fine, but as soon as we're done, I want an explanation."

* * *

During dinner, Santana and Rachel questioned Lena about her life before the outbreak and what had happened since but it was clear the girl was scared and tired.

Rachel settled the child in the little guest room of the house and reassured her they didn't mean her any harm and that they would help her look for her aunt the next day.

As soon as Rachel stepped back inside the living room, Santana launched herself into a rant. "What were you thinking Rachel? Keeping this child with us won't be easy, it's another mouth to feed, it's another target on our shoulders, I mean, she can't even defend herself and is clearly going to depend on us. Do you realize that?"

"What did you expect me to do, just leave her there to die?" Rachel raised her hands up in frustration. "Hasn't she lost enough already?"

"I never said that, but we've all lost a lot, Rachel." Santana reminded it her. She didn't want to be mean, she knew Rachel couldn't have just left Lena behind but it suddenly made everything more difficult for them until they found the girl's family.

"But she's just a child!" The diva cried.

"I know, and she should go back to her family." The older woman stated, trying to stand from the couch but deciding otherwise. "So tomorrow we're going back and find her aunt."

"And what if she's dead?" The brunette asked harshly. "Then what?"

"I don't know, Rachel, you put us in this predicament," Santana replied annoyed. She was in pain and the pills were taking their sweet time to kick in. "So if that's the case, she's your responsibility, I already have you to take care of, I can't worry about another child too."

"Another child?" Rachel hissed. "I'm a grown up, Santana. I don't need you to coddle me, I've never asked you to."

"Really?" The former cheerleader snickered. "Because for once, you decided to go on a mission alone and look what happened?"

"I didn't plan on finding a child there, Santana, it just happened and I can't believe you're blaming me for this and would let me take care of her alone." The brunette was angry and hurt at the woman's words. "You know what, maybe Finn was right, you can really be heartless sometimes." She shook her head in disappointment.

Santana looked like she had been slapped. "Fuck you, Rachel!" She struggled to stand. "You can take the first watch since you're suddenly the child of GI Jane and mother Theresa." She glared and hopped toward the bedroom, ignoring Rachel.

* * *

In the middle of the night, Rachel was reading a book she had found on a shelf when she heard soft crying. She checked outside for any sign of movement and when she saw nothing, she moved to Lena's room and noticed the girl was having a nightmare.

The brunette carefully sat on the bed and shook the child gently. "Lena, wake up," The girl startled awake, tears running down her face. "It's okay, sweetie, you're okay." Rachel hugged, Lena, trying to calm her down. She started playing with the child's hair until Lena spoke.

"Are you gonna abandon me like Louis did?" The little green eyed girl sniffled.

"Of course not," The singer reassured her. "What gave you that idea?"

"I heard you shouting about it earlier." Lena confessed.

"No honey, it's just, grownups fight sometimes when they disagree but we won't abandon you. You know if…" The diva sighed, not wanting to upset the girl more. "If we can't find your aunt, you can stay with us, we… I'll protect you, I mean, if you'd like."

Lena nodded and settled back in her bed. Rachel started playing with the girl's hair again, singing softly to help her go back to sleep.

* * *

Once Rachel was sure Lena was asleep, she went back to the living room. To her surprise, Santana was waiting for her on the couch. She closed the little door that lead to the hallway to prevent the girl to hear them if they started arguing again. She sighed. "I don't want to fight, so…"

"I heard what Lena said." Santana declared, patting the space next to her. "I'm sorry, I was a bitch."

Rachel smiled tiredly. "I'm sorry I said you were heartless." She snuggled against the woman's side.

"You did the right thing, I would have done it too. I don't know why…" The raven-haired woman sighed. "I was worried and my foot was killing me. You took me by surprise and I lashed out… It's just… It complicates everything."

"I know." The petite woman stated.

Santana turned her head, making eye contact. "Do you?"

"Yes," Rachel confirmed. "I know it means more food, more water, it means we have to take less risks and travel less in a one go, I know… It's a lot of adjustment, but I just couldn't…" She trailed off.

"I know…" The older woman sighed, kissing Rachel's hair before softly playing with it.

"You're not going to make me do this on my own?" The brunette bit her lower lip nervously.

"Nope, I guess we're stuck together…" Santana smiled when she felt Rachel's lips kiss her neck. They stayed silent until she started chuckling.

The diva raised an eyebrow. "What's funny?"

"It's just… You…" The tan woman kept laughing. "You made us talk about feelings and us being together just yesterday and what did you bring us today? A child!" She laughed harder. "You give this U-Haul thing a whole new level."

Rachel gasped. "You're infuriating." She grabbed a pillow and threw it at Santana, trying not to laugh but her girlfriend's laughter was too infectious. When they calmed down, she turned serious again, wanting to make sure they were on the same page. "So if we can't find her aunt, you…"

"We'll do this together." Santana assured her.

The brunette cupped her girlfriend's cheek and leaned forward, slowly kissing her. They kept kissing, tenderly then with more passion.

After a while, Rachel moved to straddle Santana, moving her hips and biting her girlfriend's neck.

"Rach…" Santana's voice was hoarse with want. She hadn't done anything in a while and if Rachel kept doing what she was doing, she wouldn't be able to stop herself. "Maybe…" She moaned.

"Maybe?" Rachel mumbled against the woman's neck as she unbuttoned her girlfriend's top.

"God your mouth is…" The older woman bit her lips trying to hold back another moan. "We should stop, what if a zombie comes out of nowhere and attacks or what if…" She squeezed Rachel's ass as the girl nibbled her earlobe. "What if the kid hears us?"

"I guess we'll have to be silent then." The diva smirked as she popped open her jeans.

"Rachel." Santana pulled away, gently resting her hands on Rachel's shoulders.

"I just…" The brunette sighed. "We don't know what tomorrow will bring, we might never be safe again, I… I need to feel close to you, please…"

The taller woman locked eyes with her lover, seemingly pondering her choices before sliding her hand behind Rachel's neck. "Alright, come here." She pulled her closer and resumed their activity.

* * *

The couple and the little girl waited for a few days, checking the drug store and all the places in town with no sign of the aunt. They were started to get low on supplies and needed to move. Santana's foot looked better and she was ready to travel again and for Lena, the child seemed to have resigned herself that she would never see her aunt again.

Despite being reticent at first, Santana had rapidly warmed up to the little girl who seemed to seek both of their comfort. Lena had quickly caught up that Santana and Rachel were more than friends but she clearly didn't mind.

After gathering all they needed, Rachel, Santana and Lena hit the road again.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

 **A/N:** Sorry for the wait, I was away for a while. I hope you'll enjoy the chapter. The next one will be the last.

* * *

The new town they had settled in was far more interesting than the last couple ones. Sure it was bigger and more zombies were wandering the streets but there were more stores to scavenge.

After a long argument, Rachel had agreed to let Santana go searching for supplies on her own while she was taking care of Lena, the compelling argument being that Santana wouldn't be able to carry the little girl to safety with her foot still sore if anything were to happen.

* * *

Later, Santana was leaving a store where she had found some cans and even a box of candy for Lena when she spotted a pawn shop. "Hells yes!" She smiled, carefully making her way toward it.

When the woman was close enough, she peeked through the window on the side of the store. She saw a zombie standing dumbly behind the counter and he seemed to be alone. She opened the door slowly, trying to get in unnoticed but she failed to see the bell above the door. It rang as the door hit it, signalling her presence. "Shit." The zombie spotted her and growled. In a second, he was in front of her, slamming her against a shelf. She winced, trying to avoid pressure on her foot as she struggled to push him away. She couldn't reach for her knife so she raised her left hand and grabbed a statue on the shelf, slamming it on the dead's head as hard as she could. The zombie stumbled backward, far enough for Santana to grab her kukri and slice his throat. She reached for the statue once again and bashed the zombie's head a few times to make sure he wouldn't come back to life.

The raven-haired woman straightened up, scanning the store for any other threat but it seemed to be clear. The store had been ransacked for the most part, especially the weapons aisle but there were still clothes, ammo, ASP batons, knives and accessories like holsters, flashlights and binoculars that could come in handy. As she was trying on an army jacket, she noticed a door at the far end of the store, behind a little counter. She knew these kind of stores kept some goods in the back and it wouldn't hurt to check inside. She made her way there and saw the door hadn't been forced which was a good thing until she noticed the key pad and how heavy the door was. She sighed. "Great…" Now she understood why no one had tried to open it. She stared at the keypad. "Where's Quinn when you need her…" She smiled sadly as she remembered her friend and how in college, the blonde had taken her lock picking skills to another level and shared with her a few new tricks. "Wait, what is the…"

Santana looked at the Keypad brand and smiled, she knew it well. She sent a silent prayer before typing '***00000099#*', holding her breath until the light went green and the door unlocked. "Yes, those dumbass didn't change the admin code. Well lucky me." She chuckled.

"I love you, crazy bitch. Q wherever you are, thank you." She pushed the door open and screamed in fright as she stood face to face with a zombie. The dead man surged forward and Santana fell backward, crashing against a small window display under the force of the attack. She yelped in pain, feelings the sharp pieces of broken glass on her body. She blinked and barely got time to roll to the side as the zombie jumped on her. She frantically looked around, searching for a weapon since she had dumbly left hers on the self where she had tried the jacket. She finally spotted a halberd, she guessed she would have to do it medieval style. She tried to stand but stopped abruptly when she felt a sharp pain on her side. She quickly looked down and saw a piece of glass. "Fuck!" The zombie crawled closer and growled, trying to bite her foot. "Not, now." She kicked him, once, twice, three times before swiftly removing the shard of glass, hissing in pain. She finally stood up and rushed toward the collector weapon with the zombie in toe. She took it and stepped forward with the halberd, impaling the dead man with the pike. She let his body fall with the weapon, lining against the wall as she tried to catch her breath. Rachel was right, she couldn't do this anymore, even less go on expedition alone. They needed to find a safe place to stay, something more secure and permanent, especially now that Lena was with them.

Santana sighed, running her hand through her hair and wincing once again as she felt the cuts the glass had left all over her body. Rachel was going to kill her, she had promised to be careful and well… At least she wouldn't come back empty handed she thought as she spotted 2 handguns, a shotgun, a hunting rifle and her favourite discovery to this date, a crossbow. She put everything with the rest of her findings.

As the tan woman started to exit the store, she spotted a cute little bracelet that she was sure Lena would like. She broke the window and grabbed it. She was feeling a bit like Faith in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with her 'Want, Take, Have' and she was glad Rachel wasn't here to be her voice of reason. Something else caught her eyes and Santana chuckled. "If it's not a fucking sign." She shook her head and took the jewellery before leaving the shop, making her way back with a limping foot, numerous cuts but two bags full of goods.

* * *

With the state of the roads and the zombies, it took them a while to make their way toward Corpus Christi, forcing them to stop a few times in small towns.

Another day another adventure but for once, the mood in the car felt lighter. Lena was slowly letting her guard down and the couple was starting to get fond of her, the feeling seemingly mutual. Rachel had discovered the girl loved to sing and the two had been singing tunes for almost an hour now, much to Santana's pleasure and annoyance. The older woman tried to fight it but she ended up joining them, letting herself enjoy this little moment of peace and freedom before going back to her constant state of stress and anxiety.

Santana slowed down the car when she saw a road sign, signalling they had reached Portland and were now close to their destination. "Welcome to Portland, everything's bigger in Texas, except for this shit hole." She said with a bad Texan accent.

Rachel chuckled. "After the state of decay in most of the towns we visited, I'm not sure this one will be any different."

They kept driving for a while but were forced to stop when they realised the bridge leading to Corpus Christi was destroyed. After making sure the road was clear, Santana ordered Lena to stay in the car and got out to take a closer look, sliding her crossbow behind her as Rachel followed.

"I don't think a structure like this one can collapse that way without help." The diva stated as she stared at the bridge.

The former cheerleader hummed in agreement. "Yeah, it's clearly deliberate. Maybe it's a good sign, it means there are survivors around here and by the look of it, they have the big guns."

The brunette sighed, scanning her surroundings. "So what do we do now?"

"Let's check the map for another route," The tan girl walked back to the car and grabbed the map, unfolding it on the hood. She pointed to the road with her finger. "We can either drive back to Sinton and go West or go East by Mustang Island." She looked at Rachel. "We're coming from Sinton and the road was hard enough…"

"Then let's go East." The petite woman declared. "We…" She stopped talking when she heard a snarl from behind them.

"Get behind the wheel, turn the car over and be ready to leave, I got this." Santana commanded as she reached for her crossbow, loaded it before aiming at the rabid man. The arrow went right into the zombie's skull. "Booyah, not so talkative anymore, you brain dead sucker." She smiled, proud that her practice with the weapon had finally paid off. "God, I'm getting good at this." She put her boot on his face and pulled back the arrow forcefully, a piece of brain coming with it. The woman felt almost nothing at the sight of it, it was like after all the horrors they had seen, blood and severed body parts weren't so gag worthy anymore. Right now, she didn't know if it was good thing or a bad thing but she guessed what mattered the most was to keep your humanity in the middle of Hell. She ran back to the car and Rachel drove off.

* * *

They drove to Aransas Pass and reached a small island. The couple smiled when they spotted a guard post but it was short lived. When they stopped the car to check the place, there was only a heap of cars and rubbish and no sign of life, not even the dead kind, which was weird and suspicious.

However Rachel's hope renewed when she saw there was another bridge leading to another island that had been blown up. Santana agreed they should check the other side but to do so, they would need a boat. After talking about their possibilities, they decided to find a boat since it was the easiest way to reach the island and if people took the time to destroy the bridge, it meant there was something on the other side. The couple and Lena went back a few miles down the road where they had seen a pier.

Once they reached the place, Santana parked the car and realised once again that there were no zombies around. Like the time before, Santana asked Lena to stay inside the car while Rachel and her checked the perimeter. It was full of fancy houses with private piers but the women became even more wary when they saw most of them were in ruins, like someone had blown them up. The couple walked around, still at close distance to the car, until something caught Santana's attention. On the houses that had been destroyed, there was a blue ghost graffiti on one of the walls still standing. It was another clear sign that an organized group had cleaned the place out or at least, visited the place at some point.

Even though most of the boats were gone, they managed to find one that looked simple enough to sail. They loaded their stuff in the boat and sailed toward the island.

* * *

When they arrived on the other side, the place was deserted, no humans, no zombies, just a few empty buildings. Santana looked around before dropping her backpack on the ground, shaking her head in disbelief. "I freaking knew it."

Rachel set Lena on the ground and took a step toward Santana. "Knew what?"

"This." Santana raised her hands and motioned around. "Look around Rachel, there's nothing! I knew it was all just a pipe dream, some made up shit of a lunatic."

"Language in front of Lena." The diva chastised.

The older woman glared. "I fu…." She stopped when she noticed Lena was staring at her then growled. "It doesn't matter anyway…"

The petite woman frowned as she looked at the empty warehouse to her right. "But we saw some signs of life, I don't understand."

"Well whoever was here left." Santana stated. "You should have listened, we should have stayed at the nice cottage we had found and…"

"And then what, Santana?" Rachel interrupted her. It was a discussion they kept having, what was best, especially after Lena joined them and they never seemed to agree on their next course of action. "Just wait until we are out of food to move again?"

"Then just enjoy our lives or at least what's left of it." The tan woman answered. "And there was a river, we could have caught some fish."

The brunette scoffed. "Because you are an expert in fishing now."

Santana snorted. "I'm pretty sure I'd be better at it than you so don't even start, princess."

"If you never tried how can you even…"

Suddenly 6 people who were dressed in a military uniform came out of the warehouse and surrounded them. "Sorry to interrupt your little argument but I couldn't bear your whining anymore." A man who looked to be in charge said.

Santana quickly raised her crossbow, taking a step closer to Rachel who pushed Lena behind her and aimed at the only woman of the group. "What do you want?" Santana barked. "And who the fuck are you?"

"We're the fucking US Army and if you haven't noticed yet, I'm the one asking the questions so you're gonna start by lowering your weapons." The tall man ordered.

Santana raised an eyebrow, trying to hide her fear with a blank face. "Or what?

The man smirked. "Or I'll blow your pretty heads off."

"Are you a part of the military people who created a safe haven here in Corpus Christi?" Rachel asked tentatively, trying to follow Santana's lead.

The man looked at them suspiciously. "How did you hear about that?"

"A guy who knew a soldier back in Louisiana." Santana replied, still not lowering her crossbow.

"Lower your weapons, answer our questions and then we'll explain the situation." The man waited for them to do as asked.

Rachel and Santana looked at each other, as if they were having a silent communication before dropping their weapons. "Fine." The tan girl sighed, stepping closer to Rachel and Lena.

"Captain Field." The man called, lowering his gun but signing for his team to stay put.

The redhead woman moved forward. "Yes, Major Kent?"

"Do your thing." The major winked at her.

The woman rolled her eyes. "First, are you alone?"

The brunette nodded. "Yes, it's just the three of us."

The captain continued. "Are you infected? Fair warning, don't try to lie to us."

"No, we're not." Santana answered.

"I'm gonna have to make sure of that." Captain Field told them.

Rachel frowned. "Excuse me?"

The major grinned. "It means strip."

Santana laughed humourlessly. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Nope." The man popped the p.

"Fuck you, no way!" The tan woman exclaimed.

The major chuckled. "Then you can leave, and by leave I mean, if you can run faster than my bullets that is."

"Come on Scott, stop being an ass." The redhead lectured. "We're not doing it here. You're going to follow me inside and undress down to your underwear. Only one at the time, to prevent the others from pulling tricks. Are we clear?"

"Crystal." Santana gritted her teeth. She didn't like the situation they were in at all but it didn't look like they had a choice in the matter. She didn't think they were imposters but she had to be careful until she knew more. At least, her guts were telling her she could trust the woman with her, something in her eyes, even though it sounded gay.

"Okay, let's start with the kid." Scott ordered.

Lena moved closer to Rachel and held on her leg tightly. "No."

Rachel kneeled down and gently took the girl's hands in hers, trying to reassure her. "It's okay, it's just to make sure we're not bitten. We'll be right here waiting for you."

"But I don't want to go with her, I want to stay with you." Lena insisted.

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice, kiddo." Major Kent said.

"Hey, don't talk to her." Santana snapped.

"I do whatever I want. Who is she anyway?" The man questioned.

"My daughter!" Rachel and Santana answered simultaneously before looking at each other wide eyed. They had come up with a plan to prevent them from being separated if they ever found the base. Rachel was supposed to say Lena was her daughter and Santana was her adoptive sister. Clearly something got lost in their conversation.

"Wait." Scott frowned. "Which one of you is the mo… Ohhhh." He smirked as recognition hit him. "So you two are together… You don't look like…"

"A lesbian?" The tan girl finished. "Sorry I lost my flannel and my LGBT flag on my way here."

"Santana." The petite woman called warningly. She had a feeling things could go terribly wrong. They weren't in New York, or having a field day in the entertainment world, they were in Texas, with people working for an institution, or at least what was left of it, that preached 'Don't ask, Don't tell'. "No we're just fr…"

"It's okay," The redhead interrupted. "It won't be a problem." She winked before turning toward the man in charge. "Right Major Kent?"

"Nope, guess not." The Major shrugged. "As long as you're not infected and you can help us, I don't give a shit what you're doing with your life."

"Okay, you the short one, take your daughter with you and follow me." The captain instructed, motioning for another man to go with them.

Rachel huffed at the comment on her size but took Lena's hand and followed wordlessly. After that, it was Santana's turn and once the soldiers were sure they weren't infected, they confirmed that they were part of the group that had set up a refuge. Then, the team led the couple and Lena to a small boat, stating they had a protocol to follow. The women kept wondering where they were going until the embarkation slowed down and their eyes fell on an aircraft carrier blocking the access to the sea. On top of it was a flag with a blue ghost floating proudly.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

 **A/N: Here's the last chapter of the story. I hope you'll like it. It was nice to write one last time for this fandom.**

 **Like I said, I'm not sure if I want to write for another fandom (Lara Croft/Sam Nishimura) to get rid of my frustration regarding their poor treatment or just give up on writing entirely because old white men** (Tm) **seem kin on ruining all the pairings that bring me joy with their heteronormativity and sexism... *sigh* Maybe someday, when I'll be in a better state of mine, when I'm less angry, less sad and less disappointed by the lack of representation, I mean fanfictions can only get you so far...**

 **Anyway thank you everyone for the support, reviews and follows. May we meet again...**

* * *

Rachel and Santana stared at the flag as the boat sailed, remembering the same symbol painted on the walls. "We saw this blue ghost around the marina." Rachel said.

"Seriously, who are you?" Santana asked.

"Just a bunch of soldiers that quickly realised our commander in chief and all the important people of this country had abandoned us and hid into bunkers, leaving us to deal with the mess."

Santana snorted. "Leaving us to die, yeah."

"Anyway, we decided to take the matter into our hands. This baby here," Major Kent pointed at the carrier. "It's the USS Lexington, it served during WW2 and was re-commissionned a few times after that. It was turned into a museum but when things went to shit we thought it would be better to use it for defence than for culture, especially since the gun batteries are still working." He explained.

"Why am I not surprised?" Santana declared. The guy somehow reminded her a bit of Puck, it was bittersweet.

"So that's where you settled your camp?" Rachel questioned, rocking with Lena on her lap to reassure her.

"No, it's the outpost." Scott answered. "Like I said, we have to follow a protocol. Once on board, you'll have a full check-up then you'll meet an officer that will ask you some questions."

The tan girl scoffed. "Questions, do you only have one word in your vocabulary?"

"We can't be too careful," Captain Field said. "We have to know who you are and how you can help our community."

"And what if we can't?" The brunette inquired, pulling Lena closer.

"You don't want to find out." Major Kent stated.

* * *

Once on the carrier, the three girls were led to the infirmary for a medical check-up. They had some nutritional deficiency and were slightly dehydrated but except for that and cuts and bruises, they were in good shape. When the doctor was done, a soldier escorted Rachel, Santana and Lena to a small office for an interrogation.

After 15 minutes of waiting, a middle-aged officer stepped inside the room and sat at the desk opposite the women. "Hello ladies, I'm Lieutenant Trevor and I'm going to ask you a few questions." The man said as an introduction before asking for their names, age and where they were from. "Alright, now that I have the basics, can you tell how you found this place?"

"Like we told Major Kent earlier, we met a guy a couple months ago while looking for supplies." Santana explained. "He told us he ran into a former soldier who exchanged this information for food.

"Do you have the name of this soldier or the man who told you about this facility?" The lieutenant questioned.

The tan girl shook her head. "No, I didn't care enough to ask, I thought he was delusional."

"And yet you are here." The man pointed out.

"Because I care about my family and I want them to be safe." Santana replied, still playing along with the fact that Lena was their daughter and Rachel her wife. Somehow, it wasn't totally a lie. Kurt, Quinn, Rachel were her family before the apocalypse, even if it wasn't always functional.

"After we lost our friends and were starting to struggle to find supplies, we figured out that we had nothing to lose and decided to come here." Rachel added, as she rocked Lena who was sleepily sitting on her lap.

"Alright." Lieutenant Trevor finished scribbling something in a file before looking at them. "Since you are a family, you won't be separated. We created a few facilities and among them a school for all the children. Your daughter will attend classes while you two are working for us."

"What job are we supposed to do?" The brunette inquired.

"That's what we're going to figure out with a few questions about your diplomas and former work experiences." The man answered.

Santana snorted. "It's worse than a job interview."

"We are offering you shelter, protection and food, we even have electricity. Everything comes at a price Mrs Berry-Lopez, just like before the bio-terrorist attack, you are trading your work force for a salary."

The former cheerleader glared. "No need to be patronizing, you…"

"Is it really safe?" Rachel interrupted, afraid Santana would get them in trouble. "Where are the others civilians?"

The Lieutenant glanced at Santana before looking at the petite woman. "At another location…"

"How long can we stay?" The diva asked.

"It depends." The man said curtly.

Santana frowned. "Of what?"

"How well you'll answer my questions." Lieutenant Trevor sighed. "Now, what were you doing in life before the outbreak?"

* * *

For the next minutes, Rachel proceeded to explain that she studied Theatre and Santana, Art and communication to which the Lieutenant answered they weren't useful skills in this situation. Since it wasn't conclusive, the man asked them if they had some knowledge in special areas. After talking and reviewing their abilities, the soldier decided Rachel would be the quartermaster of a zone, working in team with a soldier, which Santana thought fitted since her girlfriend would be allowed to boss people around. Santana for her part, would helped at the infirmary and would get a crash course on the basics, they had lost a nurse and didn't have anyone to replace her. Once everything was settled, the soldier stood up and bid them goodbye.

"Wait, where are you going?" Santana rushed to ask. They didn't really trust them and didn't want to end up stuck in a room while the man pretended everything was okay. "What are we supposed to do now? Aren't we joining the other survivors?"

"You will, after your quarantine." The man stated. "We have a protocol. Someone will come shortly and explain."

"A quarantine?" The tan girl cried, standing up. "What the fuck, the doctor said we were clean."

"It's protocol." The Lieutenant repeated. "You'll stay here, in a room for 24 hours."

"So you just going to lock us up like prisoners." Santana knew she couldn't trust them. Every time they were supposed to finally join the others citizens, the soldiers were pulling another test or questioning session out of nowhere. It was starting to look more and more like a working camp than a safe haven.

"Like I said it's prot…"

"I don't give a fuck about your protocol," Santana cut him off, taking a step closer to him. "We've survived this far and came here to find peace, not some sort of gulag."

"Santana." Rachel called.

The taller woman glared at the man before turning around. "What?"

"Please, just drop it, we're tired." The brunette said, almost pleading. "If being locked up in a room for 24 hours give us the key to their community then so be it."

"Seriously?" Santana frowned. "You're okay with this? Usually you would be the first to be outraged by this."

Rachel sighed wearily. "Well things change…" She pulled Lena closer and kissed the girl's hair.

Santana looked at the two girls and let out a painful sigh. "Fine." She turned around and faced the soldier. "Call your lackey and tell them to show us to your cell, at least we'll rest a little."

"You know, Mrs Berry-Lopez, I think you should be grateful we won't have to work together, I'm sure you would have regretted that attitude." Lieutenant Trevor looked at her coldly before reaching for the door.

"Likewise!" The raven-haired woman exclaimed.

Quickly after, they were led to their rooms, even though they had to argue to allow Lena to stay with Rachel and not be alone.

* * *

After feeling like a lion in a cage for a day, the three girls were finally released and led to a small boat where Captain Field was waiting for them.

"How are you?" The redhead asked when the couple and Lena joined her in the boat.

"Just peachy." Santana growled.

The captain chuckled. "That's why I insisted for being the one giving you a tour, I had a feeling I'd have fun with you."

"Well I'm glad you can get yourself off on my fucking misery." Santana growled.

"Santana, language!" Rachel chastised.

Ali Field laughed. "Come on, I didn't say it that way." She smiled kindly at them. "I know it has been a long process and I apologize but you have to understand that we can't be too cautious."

"Deep down, we understand, it's just…" Rachel trailed off, as if she couldn't find the right word to describe how they felt after all this mess. "We are exhausted." She seemed to settle for that even though it didn't even begin to cover it. She smiled at the woman. "But thank you for your kindness, you've been the only nice person we've met so far. So thank you…" She then realised she didn't know the redhead's name. "I'm sorry… what's your name?"

"Ali…You guys seem cool," The Captain shrugged. "I just thought it would be nice to get to know each other." She slowly moved to the front of the boat to start it.

Santana looked at the woman from head to toe, raising an eyebrow. "Is this your 'us gays have to stick together' speech?"

The soldier frowned, forgetting the commands to turn around. "How do you know?"

The tan woman smirked. "You're not denying it." They stared at each other until she noticed Rachel's 'play it nice' look. She sighed, it was true that the woman was the only one who had been nice to them from the start. "I don't know, your aura or whatever gaydar trick you want to call it but, mostly, the way you reacted when dick face realised we were together…"

Ali snorted, focusing back on panel and starting the boat. "Don't ever call him that to his face; he'll make you clean the latrine."

"Just keeping it real." Santana stated.

"He's not so bad once you get to know him." The captain stated as they sailed toward the island they could see from afar.

An oil rig took up most of the place and the roads and bridges around had been destroyed, making it accessible only by boat, so to prevent any unauthorized or undead access. It was actually smart.

* * *

Once they reached the place, they got inside a jeep and Ali gave them a tour. They saw numerous army tents and shacks, all organized in zones. There were even some little houses that had been built and some still under construction but for now, Ali told them it was only for 'important people', until they could build more.

Ali stopped the car in a small alley and told the couple and Lena to follow her. "I tried to assign you a tent in a nice part of the base. I know it's not the best but…" She stopped in front of a medium size army tent.

"It could be worse." Santana said, lifting Lena of the ground and settling her on her hip.

"It's sweet," The brunette moved forward and hugged her, glad to see there was still some good in the world. "Thank you very much."

The redhead patted her back. "You have a daughter; she shouldn't have to suffer more than she has already." She stepped back from the embrace. "And I mean, if Santana starts to work at the infirmary, I better be nice if I don't want her to kill me."

Santana chuckled. "I can't promise anything, but since you're okay, I'll try my best to keep you alive."

Ali snorted. "You're too kind." She shook her head in amusement. "Someone will bring your belongings soon but no weapons, for safety reasons. In the meantime, I can show you the school where Lena will go while you work. The teacher is really nice…" She smiled.

Rachel excused herself to look inside the tent but Santana stayed and noticed how the woman's eyes glimmered. "Why the big smile?"

"It's my normal smile." The soldier said innocently.

"No it's not," The raven-haired girl smirked. "You've got the hots for the teacher?"

"No!" Ali rushed. "I mean… She…I…"

"San, leave the poor girl alone." Rachel said, clearly amused as she stepped out of the tent.

"You're really good at reading people," The captain noted. "What did you say you were doing before?"

"I was a student, but it's just a talent of mine." Santana answered smugly.

"Not to stroke her ego but I've known her since high school and I have to agree with her." The diva confirmed.

Ali didn't comment and motioned for the girls to follow her back to the car. They drove in silence until she spoke. "Okay, maybe there's something between us, I don't know, it's still too soon to put a name on it."

The petite girl squealed. "That's so cute. I think you should just take a chance, life is short, especially after what happened."

Santana rolled her eyes. "Of course you would say that."

"I guess we'll see." The soldier concluded as she parked the car in front of a small building. "Here we are." She looked behind her at Lena on the back seat. "Let's introduce you to your new teacher, don't worry she's nice."

"Among other things." Santana smirked.

Rachel swat her arm. "Be nice."

Santana scolded before stepping out of the car and walking toward the school.

* * *

When they went inside the building, they didn't see any kids but they quickly figured by the shouting coming from the side of school that they were probably in recess, well as much of a recess you could have nowadays.

The teacher was facing the wall, cleaning the chalkboard. Ali cleared her throat to get her attention and the woman turned around.

Santana and Rachel blinked a few times, trying to make sure they were really seeing the blonde.

The tan girl choked. "Quinn?!"

"Oh my god, San!" Quinn answered, equally emotional. They ran toward each other and hugged tightly.

"You know each other?" Ali questioned confused.

"Yes…" Rachel breathed out, tears in her eyes. "She's our friend." She moved forward. "I thought you were dead!" She engulfed the blonde into her embrace.

"You should know it takes more than some brainless undead to get rid of 1/3 of the unholy trinity."

They laughed happily until a small voice interrupted them. "Rach… Mama?" Lena caught herself at the last minute, remembering their lie.

Quinn raised an eyebrow, looking at the little girl than at Rachel. "Mama?"

Rachel ignored her comment and smiled reassuringly at Lena. "It's alright sweetie, come and say hey to Aunt Quinn."

"Aunt Quinn?" The blonde turned toward Santana, silently asking what was going on.

"Play along." Santana whispered. "I'll explain later."

Rachel lifted Lena and carried her toward her friend, murmuring soft words. "Hello." Lena said shyly.

"Hello cutie." Quinn smiled softly.

"Wait, wait, wait..." Ali joined them. "They're the friends you told me about? I thought you said they were too stubborn to… Oh…" She looked at Lena.

Santana's eyes went wide in panic. "Wait no, it's not..."

Captain Field waved her hand. "Save it."

"Please," Rachel practically begged, hugging the little girl closer. "Don't take her away."

"I won't." Ali reassured.

The raven-haired woman frowned, unconvinced. "Really?"

"You clearly care about her like she was your own. Even if I don't appreciate being lied to, I understand why you did it and I won't tell anyone."

"Thank you." Santana and Rachel said in unison.

The redhead nodded, she opened her mouth to say something but her radio crackled. _'Field, we need you in zone B.'_ She sighed. "I have to go, will you be okay?"

"Yes." Quinn answered for everyone. She walked toward the redhead and put her hand on her arm. "These women are my family. I thought I would never see them again so, thank you." She kissed the woman's cheek softly. She heard Santana whistle and gave her the finger without breaking eye contact with Ali who was blushing.

"I didn't do much." The soldier smiled. "But I expect a full report on the situation when I'm off duty."

The blonde saluted. "Ay Ay Captain. See you tonight." She watched the woman leave before turning toward her friends. She quickly rolled her eyes when she saw the shit eating grin Santana was giving her.

"Quinnie has a crush on the hot captain," Santana sing-songed. "Yes, captain oh my captain." She made kissing noise.

Quinn grabbed a pen on the desk next to her and threw it at her. "Shut up 'Miss I'm not in love with Rachel but show up here a few months later with her as my almost wifey and a kid'."

Santana glared. "Shut up!"

"Language, both of you!" Rachel lectured, even though Lena was giggling in her arms.

The three friends smiled, enjoying their reunion until the brunette's face turned sad and she asked. "Hum, what happened to Kurt, is he…" She stopped, as if saying the words would hurt all over again.

"No, no, no, he's here!" The blonde assured with a smile.

"But, we saw the blood and…" The tan girl looked at her friend in confusion, she was sure the blood belonged to Kurt; it was a piece of his shirt she found in a tree.

"He was bitten and it was a f…" Quinn looked at Lena, stopping herself and trying to find a soft version of what happened. Rachel got the memo and looked around the desks, putting Lena down and giving her some crayons for her to draw while they talked. Once the three women stepped to the side of the room, she continued. "We found a cottage in the woods, there was a nurse with her husband and they helped us. We had to amputate Kurt's hand and for a couple days, I was pretty sure he wouldn't make it."

"Oh my god." Rachel started crying again at the tale, leaning against Santana who held her close. "What happened after that?"

"He made it, he's just…" The blonde shook her head at the memory. "He's a tough cookie too. Once he could travel again, we wanted to look for you but Paula's husband told us he saw two dead bodies that fit your descriptions."

"It wasn't us, we looked for you for almost a month." Santana informed her.

"Well we thought you were dead so we told Paula and Mike about this place and they agreed to come with us. It wasn't easy, we lost Mike but we were able to make it." Quinn recounted. "We're here for a while now, I got a job as a teacher, Kurt is helping at the garage, even with one hand, he's doing good, well as good as you could do in this situation. Ali's friend found a prosthetic hand during their last scavenging, it helps. It's not always easy, but we're safe and some day it almost feels like living again and not just surviving."

"Can we see him?" Rachel asked.

"There's a guard at the end of the street, ask him to guide you." The blonde then turned to Santana, "I really, really want to know more about you and Rachel, and your new daughter." She chuckled when Santana glared at her. "My niece." She laughed. "But I really need to start my class again. Meet me here at 5, most of the kids should be back with their parents. Tell Kurt to join too."

After some coercing, Lena agreed to stay with Quinn and meet her classmates while Santana and Rachel went back to the tent to settle their things before seeing Kurt.

* * *

Santana was emptying her few possession in the part of the tent that was supposed to be Rachel and hers room while Rachel was fixing Lena's room. She checked her bag and saw the box she had taken at the pawnshop. She opened it, smiled before closing it and putting it inside her pocket. She left the room and went to the living space, sitting on the couch that had probably come from one of the house that had been cleaned out. As she waited for Rachel, she reflected on their journey.

The fall was here now, and they had been lucky to find this base before the winter. She couldn't believe that a few months ago, they all graduated and gathered in New-Orleans to celebrate with Blaine. It felt like years had passed. They had lost friends, probably family but couldn't even contact them, they almost died a few times themselves. They saw all the darkness of the world, but they had found some good in it too. It took an apocalypse but Rachel and her finally sorted out their feelings. And Lena, well, Ali was right, they cared about her like she imagined mother would care about their kid. She knew the girl needed support and love, and she would do her best, with Rachel's help, to give it to her. They were a family and now they even had Kurt and Quinn back. Maybe they would be alright, Santana thought as her girlfriend joined her in the room. "I love you." She blurted out, surprising herself and Rachel. She stood up.

The diva looked surprised at the sudden statement but quickly grinned, stepping closer and wrapping her hands around Santana's neck. "I love you too." She tip-toed and kissed her softly.

Santana let Rachel deepen the kiss but when the girl started sliding her hands under her jacket, she forced herself to pull away. She knew if they continued, she wouldn't be able to say what she wanted to say.

Rachel frowned. "Is there something wrong?"

"No." Santana smiled reassuringly. "Nothing's wrong." She kissed her girlfriend's nose. "I just have something to tell you but if you keep kissing me like that I won't be able to."

The brunette took Santana's hands in hers. "You can tell me anything." She squeezed her hands.

The taller woman kept Rachel's hands in hers and slowly got on one knee, chuckling as her girlfriend's eyes went wide. "Okay, so I know we did everything in the wrong order, and I'm pretty sure my speech will be pretty much all over the place too but just let me do it without interruption."

"Wait, are you proposing?" Rachel's voice trembled.

"So much for not interrupting." Santana laughed, trying to calm her nerves. Instead of answering, she reached for the box in her pocket and opened it, revealing two wedding rings. "Where was I?"

"We did everything in the wrong order." Rachel offered, trying to hold back her excitement and tears of joy.

"Right. Hum," Santana cleared her throat. "We started living together, we became real friends, then best friends, then after years of beating around the bush and the end of the world, we finally got together. We even somehow adopted a child…" She stopped and chuckled before taking a deep breath. "I guess now it's time to ask you to be my wife. It's the apocalypse, we're on this Noah's Ark or island, and I still think it's ridiculous and that no one will know and that it's not even official, but it matters to you, so I guess it matters to me too. I want you to be happy, and if a wedding band on our fingers helps, then I'll gladly do it. I want our friends and all the fuckers of this place know that you're mine.

"Like you are mine." The diva added, unable to stay silent.

"I love you. I've loved you for a while now, even though I was too stubborn to say it but if there's someone I want by my side when the world ends, it's you." Santana took the smaller ring and held it in front of Rachel's finger. "I know it's not some fancy jewellery like you joked about once, but it's the thought that counts, right?" She smiled when Rachel nodded with tears streaming down her face. "So Rachel Barbra Berry, will you do me the honor of being my wife until this doomed world tears us apart?"

Rachel chuckled waterly. "Yes, I love you so much, of course it's yes!" She waited for Santana to slide the ring around her finger and sniffled. "It's not that I'm not a fan of matching scars but I still prefer that." She grabbed the other ring and put it on the woman's finger too.

"Of course you do." Santana laughed, as she looked fondly at her now wife. "Can I kiss the bride?"

Rachel smiled brightly. "You must."

As they kissed, Santana couldn't help but think that even if their future was dark, even if the world was doomed, she still had Rachel, Lena, and Quinn and Kurt. She had love and a family, and that was enough to keep something she thought she had lost a while ago… Hope…


End file.
